On Thursday, the Calgary Flames made a trade with the Minnesota Wild, moving Blake Coleman and Olli Määttä in exchange for Jacob Middleton and a couple of draft picks, including a third-round pick in 2027, a third-round pick in 2028, and a second-round pick in 2029.
Historically, this is only the fourth deal between the two clubs since the Wild joined the NHL in 2000. Moreover, the latest transaction is the first not to involve a goalie.
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Here’s a look at the three trades between the Flames and Wild.
In late 1999, the San Jose Sharks traded Mike Vernon to the Florida Panthers for Radek Dvořák. The future Hall of Famers skated 34 games with the Panthers before the Wild claimed him in the 2000 Expansion Draft. However, Vernon never even donned a Minnesota sweater, as the new club traded him back to Calgary the same day so he could finish his career where it all started, in his hometown.
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In the deal, the Flames parted with Dan Cavanaugh and an eighth-round pick in 2001, which Minnesota used to select Jake Riddle. As a former second-round pick, Cavanaugh never played a game in the NHL; instead, collecting 147 points in 419 AHL games. He’d go overseas to finish his professional career, which ended in 2009.
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Meanwhile, the Wild selected Riddle, who was born in Minneapolis. Like Cavanaugh, he never made it to the NHL and played only 6 games in the AHL. He spent the majority of his professional career in the ECHL and CHL, retiring after the 2012 season.
Once Vernon returned to the team he led to a Stanley Cup championship in 1989, he went 14-32-6 in his final 59 games and retired partway through the 2001-02 season.
TSN analyst Jamie McLennan is no stranger to Flames fans, having guarded the crease for the club on two separate occasions from 2002-04 and again in 2006-07. As a member of the St. Louis Blues, the Wild drafted him in the 2000 Expansion Draft.
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McLennan played one season in Minnesota, going 5-23-9, with a respectable .905 SV% and 2.64 GAA. However, one day before the first anniversary of his Expansion Draft selection, the Wild traded him to the Flames for a ninth-round pick in the 2002 Draft.
Minnesota selected Mika Hannula with that pick, who, like the players involved in the previous deal, never played in the NHL. He spent one year in the AHL, then stayed in Europe, played nine seasons in the SHL, and bounced around among the KHL, DEL, and Liiga before retiring in 2014.
Eventually, McLennan would depart from Calgary in 2003 for New York (Rangers) and then Florida, before finishing out his 11-year career in Southern Alberta. He went 17-25-8 in 57 games with the Flames.
Undrafted goalie Niklas Backström debuted with the Wild in 2006-07 and led the NHL in SV% and GAA at 28 years old to win the William M. Jennings Trophy, finishing sixth in Vezina Trophy voting. For nine seasons, he led Minnesota to the playoffs twice, posting a 196-144-50 record in 409 games.
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Then, in a leap year, on Feb. 29, 2016, the Wild traded Backström to the Flames, along with a sixth-round pick in that year’s draft, for David Jones. At that point, Jones was also a nine-year veteran who had 102 goals and 188 points in 446 games.
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He’d go on to play just 16 games with Minnesota, scoring two goals before leaving pro hockey. Meanwhile, Backström played only four games in Calgary, going 2-2-0 with an .885 SV% and 3.35 GAA before returning home to finish his career in Liiga.
Regarding the draft pick involved in the trade, the Flames selected Calgary native Matthew Phillips, who would play just three games with the club before moving to Washington and Pittsburgh, finishing his NHL career with one goal and five points.
Coleman is a two-time Stanley Cup champion and a multi-time 20-goal scorer. During his time with the Flames, he became a valuable leader, a model for the young stars coming in during the current rebuild. However, he was entering the final season of his six-year deal, and Calgary needed to decide whether to extend him or flip him for more assets.
Finally, the situation came to a head on July 2, 2026, when the Flames sent him to the Wild in exchange for Middleton and a handful of draft picks. Another player included in the deal is defenseman Määtta, who relocated to Calgary in March and played only 21 games.
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Recently, Määtta won a World Championship with Finland, bringing invaluable experience to Minnesota as a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Coming to the Flames is 30-year-old Middleton, who has played 381 games with the San Jose Sharks and Wild over the past eight years. He’s tallied 24 goals and 94 points while collecting 722 blocks and 588 hits.
Although it is way too early to discuss the winners and losers of the latest deal between the Flames and Wild, since three draft picks are involved, it is safe to say that Minnesota is getting two veteran players who can help the club as early as opening night. Meanwhile, the rebuild in Calgary continues, with Craig Conroy collecting draft picks to shape the franchise’s future, as the team approaches 40 years since its last championship.
