Report: Flames sign Nazem Kadri, trade Sean Monahan

According to NHL insiders Elliotte Friedman and Kevin Weekes, the Calgary Flames have signed free agent forward Nazem Kadri. Additionally, Weekes reports that the Flames are trading forward Sean Monahan in order to clear cap space for Kadri.

TSN insider Darren Dreger is reporting that the Flames will have Kadri under contract for 7 years.

More to come including official confirmation.

The 31 year old Kadri had an outstanding 87 points in 61 games with the Colorado Avalanche last season and a further 15 points in 16 playoff games en route to a Stanley Cup championship. He was arguably the NHL's biggest free agent following Johnny Gaudreau who, of course, left the Flames for the Columbus Blue Jackets. With Kadri now reportedly under contract Flames GM Brad Treliving has effectively replaced Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk and Sean Monahan with Kadri, Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar. Not bad, not bad at all considering the circumstances that Gaudreau and Tkachuk put the Flames in. We'll of course wait to see what the Monahan trade costs him though as I suspect it will cost Treliving handsomely to move Monahan's $6.3 million annual salary. It's worth noting however that Monahan has just one year left on his deal, but that he also has a 10 team no-trade list. Stay tuned on that front.

As for Kadri, he'll join a Flames squad that will look drastically different than the one who took the ice last season. It's also a return to Canada for Kadri, after spending the first 10 years of his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He had the best season of his NHL career by far in 2021-22 and was an absolute force of nature in the playoffs. Still, at 31 years old and given the style of play that Kadri likes to employ, I'd be nervous about a long-term deal if I were a Flames fan. Contracts like this rarely age well, but there's no denying the fact that the Flames will be a better team with Kadri in the lineup this upcoming season and likely for a few more seasons beyond. Once he crests the third, fourth or fifth year of this deal though... that's where things get dicey... Kadri will be 38 years old at the end of this reported deal. Stay tuned for financial details of the deal as they are reported.