The Flames Might Have a More Valuable Trade Chip Than They

There’s an interesting little hockey lesson hiding in the Calgary Flames’ projections for Yegor Sharangovich this season. At first glance, there isn't much to get excited about. He scored 15 goals and 29 points last season; this season doesn't exactly scream breakout. Something around 30-something points seems like a pretty reasonable guess.

But sometimes a player can be worth more to another team than he is to the team he currently plays for. Sharangovich might be one of those players.

The Flames are paying him $5.75 million a season, which doesn't look particularly attractive when you put it beside 29 points. But the NHL isn't operating in the same salary-cap world it was a few years ago. The cap is going up, free-agent contracts are getting bigger, and suddenly $5.75 million doesn't look quite as frightening as it once did.

Does that mean Sharangovich is secretly a $5.75 million player?

It means somebody might look at the contract and the player differently. And that's an important distinction. Sharangovich has already shown that he can score. He had 31 goals and 59 points in his first season with Calgary. The problem is that he shot the puck at an unsustainably high rate that season, so expecting him to simply go back to 30 goals isn't realistic.

But expecting him to be a useful middle-six player who can kill penalties, play 16 or 17 minutes a night and give a team some secondary scoring isn't crazy. That's a different kind of value.

The other thing working in his favour is that Calgary may eventually have a roster problem. Some of its younger players are coming, and when those prospects arrive, somebody has to move out of the way.

Maybe Sharangovich is a useful trade chip.

If it is, the Flames could discover something interesting. A player who feels like a disappointment inside one organization can sometimes look pretty appealing to another. A new coach might use him differently. A different set of linemates might help. A team looking for a middle-six forward might decide that 15 goals isn't the whole story.

That's happened plenty of times in hockey. The mistake is assuming that a player's current production tells us exactly what every other team thinks he's worth. It doesn't. And with the salary cap changing NHL economics, more teams may look for players who can provide offence without requiring a huge free-agent contract.

Sharangovich may not become a star again. He may not even have a particularly good season.

Don’t be surprised if the Flames get good value if they move Sharangovich.

But if the Flames eventually decide it's time to move on, it wouldn't be surprising if another general manager looked at him and thought, "Maybe there's something here." Sometimes that's all it takes to turn an underwhelming player into an interesting trade chip.