Trade Bait: Blake Coleman
The right battle-tested vet
Every March, gritty two-way forwards carry outsized value as playoff teams seek to one-up each other at the deadline. Case in point: Scott Laughton commanded a conditional first-round pick last season. No joke.
The two names headlining this particular bill in 2025-26—I don’t believe Ryan O’Reilly is available—are Vincent Trocheck and Blake Coleman. While the former will cost some starry-eyed club an arm and a leg following his gold medal win at the Olympics, the latter is the more attractive piece.
Here’s why.
Defense
Fans—and management groups for that matter—tend to confuse hard-nosed hockey for defensive acumen.
That misrepresentation isn’t a concern with Coleman. He is indeed chippy. He’s also well above average away from the puck. He even has demonstrable matchup success in the postseason alongside Yanni Gourde and Barclay Goodrow, terrorizing the opposition’s top lines (55.8 xGF%, 60.0 GF%) on the road to consecutive Stanley Cups in Tampa Bay.
Although Goodrow’s game degraded to such an extent that the Rangers waived him in 2024 and Gourde’s has ebbed and flowed in recent years, Coleman’s remains as solid as ever:
The 34-year-old’s defining trait on the defensive side of the puck is his closing speed. He may not have insane range (67th percentile in max burst as a 5’11”, 199-pound winger), but his anticipation guides him to the point of attack before puck-carriers are ready to be challenged.
In addition to tracking back well in transition, he’s consistently disruptive on lost DZ draws, D-to-D passes and loose puck recoveries:
Coleman pairs his early-bird DNA with a terrific bead on the biscuit, predicting both where the play is headed and where the puck will be released. He then crams his nose in the pile to corner his counterpart via an extended stick check/crouch and occasionally strip them to barrel down in the opposite direction. Game film reveals his pick-six potential (8th in short-handed points over the past 3 years) and overarching defensive philosophy: He attacks the puck.
If your team sits back in hopes of waiting out the storm, he might not be the man for the job. His coverage details suffer once he settles onto his heels. If you preach proactive, high-pressure defense, however, he’ll fit right in.
His intuition and puck pace are buoyed by a surprising level of precision. You’ll notice that there’s no montage of stick-lift heroics or desperation blocks here. He simply displays a keen sense of his positional boundaries, sensing how far he can push without sacrificing his team’s structure.
Here’s an example of Coleman (CGY 20) playing within his defensive pocket:
Against one of the scariest PP strong sides in the sport (Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins), the winger maintains inside-out stick position to force Zach Hyman (EDM 18) into traffic and deter a seam pass to Leon Draisaitl (EDM 29). He’s flushing the play to the perimeter.
Since Rasmus Andersson (CGY 4) is applying token heat on Nugent-Hopkins (EDM 93), Coleman smells pass and inches forward to claim some territory from the probable recipient: Bouchard at the point (EDM 2, off screen). Ryan Huska’s PK group aims to move the high middle threat off their spot, so Coleman skates out at the RD on an arc to choke his shooting lane. At the same time, his inside-out stick work persists. Any Oilers connection will be shallower than they’d like:
Bouchard returns the puck to a rolling RNH. The moment Coleman clocks this decision, he gets on his horse to hinder the partial 2-on-1:
Coleman’s blade is just a hair too close for Nugent-Hopkins’ comfort, which leads the Oilers forward and Andersson to the same assessment (pass > messy shooting platform). The D-man can thus promptly flex out to McDavid (EDM 97):
Andersson’s pressure compels McJesus to dish right back, but Coleman has recovered to deflect the shot over the net.
Short-handed situations always appear sketchy on the surface. In actuality, his stick placement and surgical movement nudge the Oilers precisely where he wants them on this sequence. The middle-ice threat (Bouchard) and royal road (Draisail) are rendered irrelevant, while he stays near enough to smother the one-touch strong-side setup:
Had he cheated to the point ASAP, gambled toward RNH or overshot his pursuit angle on Bouchard by a foot, Edmonton would be cooking. Instead, his educated, economical movement makes every choice the Oilers have at their disposal seem…suboptimal. When they finally decide to attack, his progressions are so crisp that the PP fails to test the netminder altogether.
It’s not some happy accident that Calgary concedes its lowest shot attempt rate when the toughest competition is on the ice. It’s not a coincidence that his teams (yes, all three teams he’s suited up for) have surrendered fewer shot attempts during his shifts going on NINE straight seasons.
The marriage between his “it’s a sprint, not a marathon” ethos and positional discipline hurries your decision-making to the point where you’re afraid of killing a play rather than aiming to create one. It’s suffocating stuff:
On a lousy team, those are sterling numbers.
Coleman’s brand of defense should appeal to most playoff clubs, but as unoriginal as it sounds, the Lightning may still represent an ideal match.
We already know what a partnership with Gourde looks like. Maybe Jon Cooper would prefer to keep his new matchup line (Pontus Holmberg and Zemgus Girgensons) intact, though. In that case, the winger could certainly add a sturdy dimension to Anthony Cirelli’s flank. When you factor in the emergence of Moser-Raddysh as well, picking up a familiar face would make Tampa Bay feel very different this spring.
Puck Pursuit
Coleman’s pace and jam around the puck also inform his forechecking. He’s a dogged F1 whose eagerness to leap into the fire causes headaches on retrieval—especially since his juggling act continues in pursuit. Similarly to in the DZ, he manages to balance a puck-hound mentality and sound decision-making:
That begins with identifying the best tool for the job.
In a more open setting, he leans on his feet and stick to thwart the opposition’s pickups. He frequently throws one-handed lifts at unsuspecting defenders, striking a sweet spot between tempo and disruptive power. Watch him zoom to reach the loose puck first, lose the inside track to Rasmus Dahlin (BUF 26), reclaim it in one fell swoop and rumble to the goalmouth:
Part of what makes Coleman such an enticing trade target is that he’s not strictly a thief or thumper. He’s adept at playing the puck and the body and grasps when he should opt for either tack. No fly-bys or empty-calorie hits. He approaches each engagement with clarity of purpose.
When he delivers checks, he does so on time and with enough of a wallop to shatter a defender’s on-puck coordination. There’s plenty of value in playing through defenders:
How many bone-rattling hits were included in that package? Maybe the first one. Again, he’s 5’11” and 199 pounds. It doesn’t matter that his build is a far cry from Tom Wilson’s. Merely demanding opponents to scan and execute under the threat of *gasp* physical contact can stall them along the boards.
And once an F1 has stopped the puck’s progress, they’ve done their job. If they can jar it loose, even better.
On the topic of board play, Coleman is a dependable wall-sealer too:
Many F2s arrive on the scene without wholly committing to the task, which tenders opponents the wiggle room they require to initiate their transition phase. Coleman charts his routes with a group effort in mind. When he can’t trigger a 50/50, he picks a side and blocks it off to the hilt, either stealing the puck back himself or shepherding it toward his teammates. Easy outs don’t exist in the face of his stubborn roadblocks.
Thunderous hits and dip-your-shoulder solo dashes are nice, but refusing to take shortcuts and thereby dragging the other team into tough sledding is the trustier form of “hardness.”
Considering his 200-foot puck pressure, I can’t imagine anyone is surprised that he performs well in shot attempt share:
Second-highest CF% in the second-most difficult minutes up front. Yeah, those matchup credentials haven’t expired—and they’d look awfully good on a team that would benefit from a larger slice of the territorial pie.
Dallas and Buffalo come to mind.
Close-Range Offense
OK, we’ve established that Coleman spurs his team in the right direction. How does he leave his mark once Calgary switches to the attack?
The answer is about as plain and predictable as his style of play: He drives to the cage. Instead of dithering on the outside as a would-be creator, the winger acts as a force multiplier by flooding the most valuable OZ quadrants:
Whether he’s enjoying high-danger chances himself or obstructing goaltenders’ sight lines, his presence routinely ramps up the activity level around the crease. This jumbles the opposition’s spacing and sharpens his own team’s menace. Having a forward hunker down in the trenches is a time-tested method of raising your offensive efficiency:
Coleman seldom drifts away from the net. He funnels to the goalmouth over and over again, detecting soft/blind spots as they materialize on the rush or in high-low action. If he sees a defender’s numbers, he’ll play off their heels and tail them until the passer is ready to work their magic.
He does well to reset too. Rather than parking in the crease and waiting for service, he’ll switch his leverage when his initial window closes to present a more appealing target in tight:
Don’t let his seven high-danger tallies this season (70th percentile) or 30-goal year in 2023-24 lead you to believe you’re acquiring a clinical finisher.
Frankly, his OZ impact is predicated more on disruption than individual scoring prowess. His regular net-front presence and talent for synchronizing his arrival with an incoming pass/shot spikes Calgary’s offensive upside. Each bid carries greater danger when he’s in the mix.
Although he’s a decent shot-deflector, it’s his deeply annoying screen game that deserves special mention:
Here’s an undersized forward who will take your goaltender’s vision away by any means necessary. Coleman might resort to “the Sean Avery” himself if that maneuver hadn’t been outlawed. Like any net-front player worth their salt, there’s a greasy, “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying” element to his game. He’s constantly setting picks that impede opponents without drawing too much attention. The following clip is a good example:
If the Flames win the draw back to Joel Hanley (CGY 44), he has three looks:
Keep it himself.
Dish to Jonathan Huberdeau (CGY 10), who’s climbing the OZ to complete the three-high front.
Pass to Andersson out wide.
Regardless of the LD’s selection, Coleman must slow down Kaapo Kakko (SEA 84) enough for his teammate to execute. He does that and then some:
Not content to chip his counterpart, he shifts his center mass inside to knock Kakko completely off course, which manufactures a GIANT cushion for Hanley to operate in. As you’d expect, he kicks it to Andersson. Coleman now cycles through fluid net-front reads. Far-post redirect first, screen second:
The RD hesitates in search of a pass, and by the time he flings the puck into traffic, his winger’s leaping chicken wing and Kraken blueliner Ryker Evans (SEA 41) have crowded Joey Daccord’s (SEA 35) eyes.
The goaltender’s still in an upright stance long after Andersson’s release:
Of course, a bounce off your captain’s skate isn’t the cleanest setup, but you can see how much of a nuisance Coleman is. The “legal” obstruction, the hunger to gain depth as a net-front guy, the jump for chaos’ sake. Those definitely are repeatable. In fact, he insists on it.
It’s a good thing, too, because his value dwindles outside of slugfest range. Give him touches on the perimeter, and he’ll display some…questionable puck management. He frequently attempts low-percentage passes or gets dispossessed.
He’s a hammer. Not an architect:
Limit his creative burden, however (a simpler proposition on a contender), and he’ll inject a solid dose of mayhem around the crease. He paces the Flames in high-danger attempts and ranks 36th leaguewide in that metric:
Don’t bank on his scoring but rather his tendencies and tenacity. While he won’t convert at a prodigious clip, his net drive can help your squad break through when all else fails. Teams that lack bite in the trenches (e.g. Boston or Detroit) should give Craig Conroy a call.
GMs are chomping at the bit to overpay for “playoff-style” contributors. For once, the price would be justified.
Not only does Coleman possess those fabled intangibles (championship experience, competitiveness, whatever), but he’s also a legitimately good player who can support your title chase on multiple fronts.
Sounds like a win-win trade to me.