Three years after turning down a trade that would send him from Toronto to Calgary, and more than a month after the start of free agency, Nazem Kadri is finally a Flame.

Kadri has agreed to a seven-year deal with the Flames worth $7 million annually, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. To create the cap room necessary for Kadri, Calgary is reportedly working on a deal to send Sean Monahan to the Montreal Canadiens.

While the Flames have yet to announce either deal, the acquisition of Kadri is yet another move in a transformative offseason that pushes Calgary’s window of contention back open after losing Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau last month.

What does Kadri bring to the lineup? What does all this mean for the Flames?

The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian and Shayna Goldman dive in.

What Kadri brings to the lineup

The short answer: Kadri adds a lot to the Calgary Flames.

He is an excellent two-way center who can drive offense and plays a hard, edgy style that will certainly be a fit under head coach Darryl Sutter. He’s excellent on the power play. He adds energy to the dressing room, and he brings leadership and more Stanley Cup experience. But, perhaps most importantly, he rounds out their top-six in a really nice way, especially up the middle.

Kadri immediately elevates the Flames’ centre depth, giving Calgary an offensively gifted 1A/1B tandem of Elias Lindholm and Kadri in the top-six. Consequently, this move likely pushes Mikael Backlund to the third line where he can be a key cog of a shutdown combination, which plays more to his elite defensive strengths.

Besides Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton, the Flames now have centre depth that rivals just about any team in the Western Conference – if not the league. That’s something the club hasn’t been able to say in recent years with Monahan’s health and game on the decline.