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It’s certainly no shocker that some of the NHL’s bottom-feeders targeted the 6-foot-2, 212-lb. smoothie from Nokia, Finland, as a potential (re)building block.

As Flames coach Bill Peters put it: “Good for the other teams to ask for our best young players — that means they’re watching … But good for us to hang onto them.”

About a half-hour after Monday’s deadline passed, Treliving told a scrum of reporters in Manhattan that he’d been “fishing in a lot of different holes” but wasn’t willing to bait the hook with Valimaki or fellow rookie rearguard Rasmus Andersson.

Still, Calgary’s head honcho — the architect of a squad that has sizzled to a 41-16-7 record so far — wanted to be sure that the kid wasn’t receiving mixed messages.

“Lots of real smart guys like you write stuff that maybe Juuso is in these talks,” Treliving teased. “I just told him that our No. 1 objective was to add to our team — and we did that with Oscar (Fantenberg) — but on some of the bigger stuff, the only way we get into those talks was with him going in there, and he’s not going anywhere.

“He’s going to be a big part of this team. I think he is going to be a part of the team now. He’s going to be a part of the team in the future. I’m not putting him on the plank, and I just wanted him to hear that.

“You can forget this guy is 20 years old and it’s the first time going through it, so I just wanted to let him know that none of that stuff was going to be ever contemplated.”

Valimaki certainly didn’t look out of place in 22 outings for the Flames prior to being hobbled by that high-ankle sprain.