Rebuild. Or: The new chapter in the history of the Calgary Flames.

I couldn't sleep. There I was, at 3 in the morning, constantly hitting F5 on my computer, waiting for a confirmation of the rumors. Alex Khokhlachev, Matt Bartkowski and a 1st round pick were rumored to be the return. It made sense - the Bruins had scratched both players from their lineup that night. I wasn't too thrilled with the return, mainly because I didn't think that Bartkowski would turn out to be a very good NHL player. I could live with it though, Khokhlachev is a fine prospect and the 1st must have been the main piece for the Flames from the start. Some fans probably had unrealistic expectations ... but hey, it's Jarome Iginla, after all. I finally went to bed, believing that the era of Jarome in Calgary was over and that he would be a member of the Boston Bruins by the time I would wake up.

He wasn't, of course. I nearly spit out my coffee when I read the headline on NHL.com - "Flames trade Iginla to Pittsburgh". I anxiously scrolled down to see the return, only to read the names of two players that I had never heard before. At least the 1st round pick was there, too. Checking Ben Hanowski and Kenny Agostino on HockeyDB, Eliteprospects and HockeyFuture painted a better picture, but in the end, I didn't really care too much about the return. What really stood out to me was: they are really doing this. They have really traded HIM. They are finally embarking on the painful, but necessary new chapter in the franchise's history. They hate the word in Cowtown and Mr. Feaster and his entourage avoid it whenever they can, but there is no denying anymore: the Flames are rebuilding.

Finally. If you ask me if it is the right decision to do this now, my answer is a loud and clear 'NO'. The right time would have been two years ago, when the whole team caught fire in the second half of the season and Iginla was a 43-goal-scorer. The organization held on to their guys back then, and a year later, despite Feaster's famous rant a few days earlier, they stood pat once again ... unsurprisingly, trying the same thing over and over didn't result in different outcomes. The Flames have delayed the rebuild for as long as possible, have waited until their hands were tied ... that didn't help the return they'd get for our franchise players, of course. But I for one am just happy that it is happening now - trading Jarome is still a better option than allowing him to leave for free after the season.

The Flames have also shipped out Jay Bouwmeester for Mark Cundari, Reto Berra and a conditional 1st round pick from St Louis (it's a 2013 1st if the Blues make the playoffs, otherwise it's a 2014 1st and an additional 2013 4th) before sending Blake Comeau to Columbus for a 5th round pick. I would have expected more trades, but at the end of the day, it seems like a guy like Anton Babchuk wasn't enticing enough to other clubs and guys like Mike Cammalleri and Matt Stajan will probably have even bigger value next year. They tried to send out Miikka Kiprusoff, but eventually granted his wish to stay in Calgary and retire as a Flame.

It is hardly surprising that the Flames have lost every single game since the deadline. The first games without Iggy and J-Bo have, at times, been underwhelming for me ... mainly because the veterans of the team haven't taken the chance to step up and lead by example. With the face of the franchise and the top defenseman gone, I would have expected the Tanguays, Cammalleris and Glencrosses on this team to audition for the vacant captaincy, but I haven't seen anything of that over the last few games.

The most positive thing is that the Flames have had an influx of young talent coming in, as they have called up Brett Carson, Roman Horak, Max Reinhart and Sven Baertschi to fill the voids and audition for next year. It is a positive sign that the Flames have gone that route and that Bob Hartley, a man with a reputation to be hard on youngsters, is willing to give a rookie like Max Reinhart a total of 16 minutes of ice time in his very first NHL game. The Flames need that youthful energy, and hopefully a part of this jump will eventually carry over to the veterans. Otherwise, I surely hope that the "C" will stay vacant next year.