Flames make PERFECT Move... - Insider Reveals Flames' NEXT target | Calgary Flames News

Fans of the Calgary Flames actually have something to cheer about during this horrendous start to the season as the team has announced the perfect set of transactions. Plus, NHL insider Pierre Lebrun may have just revealed the next big Flames move. We're going to get to all that more in this video, but first I want to welcome you to Flames Digest. I'm Mark Griffith. If you're new around here and you love the Flames, make sure you subscribe so you can stay up to date on all the latest news, updates, sports, and rumors revolving around your Calgary Flames. We would love to welcome you to the Flames Digest family and let's kind of talk about how the boys are back. But we also need to address the elephant in the room here, because where the heck am I? I'm hoping this sounds okay. I don't have my microphone. As you can see, the background behind me looks fake. It's real. That's a real wall. But no, I'm at work right now. I wanted to record this before the game starts. I actually had all of this ready to go yesterday, recorded twice, hit some technical difficulties, but hopefully I'm able to get this video out today before the game. But I wanted to first talk about the transactions, because perfect move done by the Flames here, as they have recalled both Aydar Sunyev and Jonathan Castagna. I think that will make Flames fans extremely happy. Both, you know, bring some offense for a team that hasn't really been able to score all that much so far in this young season, and I think it's just a great move. So, logistically, let's start with what Pat Steinberg's pointing out here. He says, Sunyev and Castagna recalled from the Wranglers, puts the active roster back at 23 players. Conor Zeri and Braden Pahal were sent to the AHL on Tuesday. So a lot of people were thinking, you know, with all of this Zeri business going on, maybe that means Huberto was ready to come back. But that's not the case. And instead, Sunyev and Kostanya get to come up, which I think is absolutely fantastic. A lot of people were thinking maybe a Bruce Stevich since Pahal was going down. Unfortunately for Bruce, wasn't able to come back up at least yet. But Kostanya and Sunyev, I don't think anyone's complaining with that. And a funny point here from Ryan Pike is that, yes, Jonathan Castagna is the Flames player nicknamed Georgie after George Costanza from Seinfeld. Yes, it's hilarious. So despite them not even actually really having the same last name, Costanza and Costagna, he still gets called Georgie for George Costanza. I think that's hilarious for Jonathan Costanza. He seems to just eat it up perfectly, which is, you know, exactly what you want to hear. Glad they have that camaraderie already with one of these young guys. So, yeah, I just thought that was a great tidbit to throw in. As Paige Seaworth points out here, she covers the Wranglers quite extensively. She says, good to see the young guys rewarded with the latest call-ups. Idar Sunyev had a heck of a camp, and Jonathan Castagna, I'm tempted to say Costanza now, but Jonathan Castagna had a two-goal performance in his professional debut with the Wranglers last weekend. So, like I said, this is a team, the Flames, who have struggled to score so far this year. Sunyev looked amazing in the preseason and training camp, probably the Flames' best player, was wonderful in the next-gen showcase as well, was scoring goals. So now obviously gets a chance to bring his talents to the NHL. And Castagna, I mean, it says it right there, in his professional debut, got some goals. So super happy to hear that. Zenit Zalafsky here also points out, love this for Castagna. Thought he had a really good preseason and he had a strong start for the Wranglers too. For an org with a very bad center depth, it could be a huge opportunity. He's just got to grasp it, take it, and go, go, go. Absolutely pumped for him. now looking at the lines in yesterday's practice and i will get into what the lines actually are for today's game which i know is happening very soon by the time this video is out um let's start with the lines so grid and frost coronado no surprise there sharon govich on the second line with backland and farabee hans extrom and pospacil and then you get to the fourth line that has sunyep and castagna with klapka super exciting othman and siplikov as your extras and then the the defense not changed at all but just Hanley as your extra no Pahal of course so super pumped that they were given that opportunity you look at the power play units and it gets even more exciting top unit doesn't change at all but the second unit Strom, Sunyev, Klapka, Sharon Govich and Nemec so happy to see Sunyev on there let's hope tonight I mean we're not you know exactly thinking that we'll get a great result against the Colorado Avalanche and I'll actually pull up the little graphic here for tonight's game as this one goes at 7 p.m again by the time this video is out by the time you're watching the game might be over to be quite honest but uh a tough one tonight uh back at the dome against colorado let's just hope we get some power plays and can see these units that's that's what we're asking for and please try not to get destroyed too badly be awesome to get a win because i think those will be a lot harder to get this year than they were last year but hopefully it should be good officially getting to the lines now here we go so grid and frost coronado as your top line sharon govich with backland and farabee hanzek Pospisil-Strom. And then, yes, officially Sunyev, Kostanya, and Klapka. So Kostanya making his NHL debut. Sunyev making his season debut. So happy to have both of those guys in there. I hope the fourth line plays quite a bit, to be honest with you. Defense, again, what we just saw. Ball with White Cloud. Koozie with Nemitz and Middleton and Parekh. And then Cooley is your starter tonight. Not Dustin Wolfe. Been a rough start to the year for Wolfe. Not saying it's entirely his fault, but good to see Cooley getting in on the action there just with the boys back I just wanted to show a couple quotes from the main men themselves as well I'll make them a little bit bigger here so starting off with Sunyup he said I feel great so excited to be back and start here that Sunyup checks in after yesterday's skate to talk about being recalled by the flame so sounds like he's excited super ready to be back and just absolutely pumped for him hopefully he can bring some excitement because that's what we want right now is at least we know we're going to get smoked at least make it exciting but hopefully he can bring some goals as well since those have been lacking uh moving over to where is it there it is mr castanza castania uh he said i'm still just trying to settle in here i'm just trying to keep my head on my shoulders and not get too excited it's pretty awesome so far i will say so it's been a whirlwind day yesterday for jonathan castania earning his first nhl recall and hitting the ice with the flame so he very professional guy the way he talks it it's it's not exactly even perfectly media trained it's just so he's just perfect let's just put it that way maybe i'm just saying that because he looks so much like my childhood friend but i just am enamored by this guy but um i miss him um his name's also jonathan isn't that crazy maybe it's him in another life um but he just always seems to say the perfect thing here you know it's funny that he's saying he's trying to keep it cool but we all know he's probably just super giddy pumped to get going and we're really excited to watch him at the NHL level tonight now the other part of you saw it in the title you saw it in the intro the thumbnail everything is the next move for the Flames and it's kind of in the talk of the town lately it's not Castagna anymore here's the updated one so it comes from Pierre Lebrun like I said and when talking about line A and a potential landing spot for him because he's still a free agent he said the Flames have kicked it around internally but want to look at their young guys first whether or not they call back we'll see detroit has talked about it so sounds like the flames are at least somewhat interested in line a maybe if there are more injuries or crazy stuff with waivers and stuff like we've been seeing lately then there's a chance that maybe you know a line a could become a flame i know there's certain viewers of this channel that would love to see that happen but it just looks like it's more of an outside chance that happens would rather kind of develop some of the guys we have internally before bringing in a line a um or else why else wouldn't he be signed by someone else um but yeah that's essentially what's going on there to continue on what lebrun was saying so this is from the actual article from the athletic from lebrun so he said line is still looking i'm mildly surprised that unrestricted free agent winger line hasn't found a home yet i get that some teams have concerns about his five on five play but man he could surely still have a power play and that's that's what he did with montreal last year for sure it seemed like he was lighting it up i think he's gotten over his fortnight addiction too well maybe he's back on it being a free agent. Because Laine spent time on long-term injury reserve last season in Montreal, the allure of taking a gamble on him on a one-year deal is that it can be a performance bonus contract with a low base salary. There'd be limited financial investment and there'd be an easy walk away. If he doesn't pan out, you're talking about 150k a month for a seven time 20 goal score. So very low risk, but potentially high reward here for Laine. In any case line a continues to patiently wait for his next nhl opportunity skating in florida with a few other unsigned nhlers including tarasenko and nikishin patrick is healthy skating every day and feels really good his agent andy scott said this week um he's only 28 has a lot of good hockey ahead of him and remains excited about his next opportunity he's focused on staying ready so that when the right situation presents itself he can step in and contribute right away so really trying to sell it up i mean that's obviously his agent talking about it but it could be the next move for the flames going after a guy like line a i'm not saying i want it to happen could it make this season a little bit more exciting and bearable it honestly could i have nothing against the guy so yeah there's there's definitely talks of that going around just some other trade talk while we're talking about it anthony demarco here points out that speaking with flame sources it doesn't sound like they are in a rush to move zach white cloud to start the season on an otherwise very young blue line white clouds veteran presence could make the asking price even higher so no rush to trade white cloud despite him maybe being the most valuable guy trade wise a lot of people would say frost if he's actually really on the market but yeah just because of all that leadership the veteran qualities i mean stanley cup pedigree it's it sounds like he's more valuable that's fine by me don't sell him unless you absolutely get a king's ransom in return last one here has to of course do with zary gotta talk about a bit but sportsaholic says hearing zary's name being mentioned in a possible trade to montreal for kirby doc flames would need to retain two million or more on each of zary's remaining two years on his contract i mean if it's one for one like that with little retention i could be persuaded i'm not enamored that's the second time i've said that but i'm not enamored by kirby doc i've said that in uh past videos as well but maybe if zary's completely disgruntled, then why not? Zanisalapsky once again replies, he says he can feel wronged and mad, but best thing he can do is dominate the A and work his way back up and then get traded. Walking away from money that can set you up for life is really tough. So maybe Zeri understands that, hey, I need to make things work in Calgary before I can make them work elsewhere or else my value is at an all-time low. I'm not going to get the biggest contract. That's definitely part of it. There's so many elements to the Zeri situation, but I'll just leave it at that for this video. now let's get into the comment of the day to wrap up this video as we love to do here on the channel really hope that this one does uh upload and you can actually hear me and everything but uh roy little bear says look at the bright side now mark we have sunyup coming back and castania i'm excited go flames go despite all of the drama and everything it's still an exciting time to be a flame stand we have sunyup and castanza castanza that's actually that wasn't even on purpose but that's just gonna happen for me now but so pumped to have those guys up it's an exciting time hopefully they impress us in the game tonight go flames go thank you so much for watching this video please subscribe if you like what you saw here today and have a wonderful rest of your day