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Andy Greene of the New Jersey Devils holds up Curtis Glencross of the Calgary Flames at the Prudential Center on February 25, 2015 in Newark, New Jersey. The Flames traded Glencross to the Capitals in exchange for second- and third-round choices in the 2015 NHL entry draft.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

As expected, the Calgary Flames have traded soon-to-be unrestricted free agent forward Curtis Glencross. The landing spot is Washington, where the Capitals were looking for reinforcements up front and may ultimately try Glencross on their top line alongside Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin.

In exchange for Glencross, the Flames acquired second- and third-round choices in the 2015 NHL entry draft, continuing this year's primary trade deadline trend of the sellers getting fabulous value for rentals. Glencross had 28 points in 53 games for the Flames and was playing a support role on the team. But he plays an edgy hard-nosed style, something the Capitals believe they need to go on a long playoff run.

Also on Sunday: The Flames claimed defenceman David Schlemko off waivers from the Dallas Stars, after putting team captain Mark Giordano on injured reserve.

The Flames, in the midst of a seven-game road trip that continues in Philadelphia Tuesday, sent Giordano home Sunday to consult with the team's medical staff after he suffered an upper-body injury during last Wednesday's 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Giordano was leading all NHL defenceman in points when he was injured and playing above 25 minutes per night for the Flames.

Their hope is that Schlemko can play in their top six, with Giordano sidelined indefinitely with an undisclosed upper body injury. Schlemko played three seasons as a junior on the same Medicine Hat Tigers' team as Kris Russell, one of Calgary's key defencemen.

Flames' general manager Brad Treliving worked seven seasons for the Coyotes before joining Calgary last spring, a period of time that covered most of Schlemko's pro career and thus knows his game, inside and out.

Schlemko has usually played as a sixth or seventh defenceman in the NHL, and got into a career-high 48 games last season and averaged 16:24 minutes per night.

The Flames have not revealed how seriously Giordano is injured and essentially are buying time with Schlemko's addition in the hopes of staying in the Western Conference playoff race. Philosophically, the Flames did not want to make a more aggressive move on a defensive replacement because they do not want to veer off their long-term plan of building through draft choices and by developing players within their own organization.

Treliving has the option of flipping one or both of those picks to further upgrade his blue line, though it may well be that they stand pat now that they've added Schlemko.

For comparative purposes, consider the Flames received essentially the same package for Glencross as the Los Angeles Kings surrendered to the Columbus Blue Jackets for rental Marian Gaborik. Gaborik went on to lead all NHL players in goals during last year's playoffs, with 14.

But the market for this year's deadline was essentially set when the Toronto Maple Leafs pried loose a first-round pick from the Nashville Predators in the deal that sent Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli south.

In all, four first-rounders have already been traded: Nashville to Toronto; Buffalo to Winnipeg in the Evander Kane deal; Los Angeles to Carolina for Andrej Sekera; and Chicago to Arizona for Antoine Vermette. The prices seem high in what is considered one of the deepest drafts in a decade – and the only explanation seems to be that there isn't a single NHL powerhouse to fear this year; and thus, a lot of teams believe they have a legitimate chance to win a Stanley Cup championship.

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