With a firm grip on the third seed in the Western Conference, the Calgary Flames are in the position of buyer heading towards the March 4 trade deadline.
A second-line centreman and/or strong puck-moving defenceman would certainly help their cause of reaching the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup this season.
However, those wishes may have turned into necessities as Calgary suffered a rash of injuries this week: winger Rene Bourque (high ankle sprain), centre Daymond Langkow (bruised hand) and defenceman Mark Giordano (upper body) all went down to injury.
There are five players that are considered to be untouchable and after that, anything is possible. But perhaps the most tantalizing asset the Flames could part with is Matthew Lombardi, who has yet to reach his full potential but has a relatively cheap price tag and has been playing his best hockey of the season in recent weeks.
The Flames don't have a lot of wiggle room under the cap and they already have over $40 million committed to the cap next season. And to make things more complicated, general manager Darryl Sutter does not believe in acquiring rental players, which puts the Flames organization in an interesting position heading into trade deadline.
Files from TSN Reporter Jermain Franklin were used in this report.
