The Montreal Canadiens have taken advantage of poor asset management by the Calgary Flames a couple of times in the past four years. First, they picked Paul Byron up on waivers and then helped him develop into an excellent defensive forward who is capable of killing penalties and scoring 20 goals from the bottom six of the lineup.
That was great, but acquiring Brett Kulak might have been even better. The Canadiens did not pick Kulak up from the Flames on waivers because they weren’t willing to add another contract to their organization. Instead they waited for him to pass through waivers and then somehow talked the Flames into taking two contracts off their hands when they shipped RInat Valiev and Matt Taormina to Calgary for Kulak.