Flames Trade Deadline Review/Regular Season Progress

At the begginning of the 2013-2014 season GM Derek Loftus expected that the Calgary Flames would continue to rebuild and possibly make a playoff bid with 8th place expectations, but as usual the team lived to exceed expectations and has been giving most of the teams in the west a run for there money currently holding 6th place while trailing the teams ahead of them by a few points. The team went into trade deadline thinking there would be some minor trades that would help for the playoff race but as time passed GM Derek Loftus was very busy and on the phone almost all night, he would ship out the likes of Thomas Vanek,Carl Hagelin,Karl Alzner,Dustin Penner,Colorado's 1st round pick and Ottawa's fourth round pick.

In return the Calgary Flames would bring in Loui Eriksson,Zach Bogosian,Ryan Ellis and Markus Kruger which some would argue was a great haul for the team but resident Toronto GM called out the Flames calling them the losers of the Trade Deadline which would turn heads of fans everywhere making them wonder if GM Ron Dubin wasnt dropped on his head as a child a few too many times. As a result GM Derek Loftus was very happy with how the trade deadline went and feels that the team improved all together while still remaining a playoff team even with the loss of there top player Thomas Vanek who led the team in points. 

When asked whether or not GM Derek Loftus thought his team had a chance at winning this years championship he had this to say :"We believe our team could definetly give most teams a run for there money and stranger things have happened in this league, but winning this year is not the goal our goal is to continue to improve let our guys develop and gain much needed experience no matter the result management is happy at the end of the day as long as our team learns something from the time they spend in the playoffs."