Flames hoping to sign Hamonic, Brodie after pause, GM says

The Calgary Flames are hoping to sign defensemen Travis Hamonic and TJ Brodie but don't plan to pursue a contract for either pending unrestricted free agent while the NHL season is paused, general manager Brad Treliving said Thursday.

The season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. There is no timetable for when it might resume.

"I've talked with both their agents and said, 'Listen, we like both players, we want to see if there's a way to get something done,' but both of us agree there's so much uncertainty right now," Treliving said. "In all of us, we can't get wound up in the uncertainty. Things will happen. Things will work out. The things you can't control, there's no sense in burning any jet fuel on it because it's not going to make a difference.

"With that, what we've told them is that we like them and we're going to plan to get them back here as soon as we can restart the season, that's the priority, and then we'll deal with contracts whenever the offseason is and when we have all the information that we're going to have in terms of [the NHL salary] cap and those things."

Hamonic, traded from the New York Islanders on June 24, 2017, is in the final season of a seven-year contract. The 29-year-old has 42 points (11 goals, 31 assists) in 193 games and three seasons with the Flames.

Hamonic, who had missed 14 games with an upper-body injury leading up to the pause, has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in 50 games this season and is second on Calgary in average ice time per game (21:12; defenseman Mark Giordano is averaging 23:53).

Brodie, who was drafted by the Flames in the fourth round (No. 114) of the 2008 NHL Draft, has 266 points (48 goals, 218 assists) in 634 games and 10 seasons with Calgary, including 19 points (four goals, 15 assists) this season. The 29-year-old is in the final season of a five-year contract.

"Certainly [there's] some uncertainty with it, but again you don't know, so beating your head against the wall doesn't help you," Treliving said. "For the player too. They've got to know what the landscape is that they're getting into. All those things will get addressed in that time frame once we figure out as a league when [this season] officially will end and [next season] will start.

"There'll be a whole lot of stuff that happens in between."

Calgary has five pending unrestricted free agent defensemen: Hamonic, Brodie, Derek Forbort, Erik Gustafsson and Michael Stone.