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The only thing Calgary hockey fans seemed to be talking about more this summer than the brilliant sunshine was whether Jaromir Jagr, Jarome Iginla or Shane Doan were a fit for the Flames.

So when one of the free agent right-wingers recently sent Brad Treliving a thoughtful gift you’d assume the Flames GM would know instantly what the player’s motivation was.

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Wrong.

“It was my birthday on the 18thand I got a package from Shane (Doan) with a jersey of his inside,” said Treliving, who was the assistant GM in Arizona for 11 of Doan’s 20 years there.

“There was a touching letter inside as well as a nice inscription on the jersey that essentially said ‘along the way you meet good people and thank-you.’ At the time I was thinking, ‘that’s nice, he remembered my birthday.’ It meant a lot.

“Then (on Wednesday) we hear the news he’s retiring and my wife calls with the news and says, ‘I wonder if that (gift) was because he knew he was retiring.’