Who will Brian Burke and Jay Feaster choose to replace Kiprusoff?
Will they stay in the family, or, will they go the trade route to find a veteran who will serve as the focal point for the rebuilding project that is presently underway in Calgary.
The Flames have two goalies, Joey MacDonald and Karri Ramo, who will compete for their starting job. Ramo has two years remaining on his contract at $2.75 million per season, while MacDonald has one year left at $925,000. Ramo will will start the season as the #1 tender in Calgary. What happens if he gets off to a horrible start to the season? What then?
Last week, the Flames hired former Toronto Maple Leafs and former Team USA Olympic Hockey GM Brian Burke to serve as Director of Hockey Operations.
Before last week's Burke hiring, I would have said that Feaster would be playing Ramo and MacDonald this season. Now, with the riverboat gambler Burke in the middle of the discussion, I'm more inclined to say that the Flames will be looking to make a big trade to deliver their next starting goalie to Calgary. Burke can wait until next season to see if he can sign one of the top UFA tenders in Ryan Miller, Henrik Lundqvist, or James Reimer, who played for Burke in Toronto.
Burke is not known to sit around and wait. He has a reputation of making big, bold moves to help kick-start his teams.
The Flames are 29th in the NHL in terms of cap space with nearly $13 million to work with this season.
As there a voodoo curse on the Calgary Flames? Are they suffering from an "organizational disease"?
Their GM Jay Feaster sure seems to think that his team is cursed. Feaster met with the media after the Flames lost to the Sharks at the Young Stars Classic in Penticton over the weekend.
Feaster started the presser with this brutally candid statement about his team's play:
Is Feaster serious? With comments like this, he may not be the GM of the Flames for very much longer. Perhaps he's already feeling the pressure of having an alpha dog like Burke in his front office.
Roll the entire presser:
Calling out the kids in Abbottsford and his pros in Calgary is risky business, considering that Feaster is the man who is their leader. Featser has been the Flames GM for 4 years. The losing culture is all on Feaster at this point.
Its up to him to answer the question:
"Is it something in the water? Is it something in the sweater"?
Its Monday 9/9. NHL training camps open on Wednesday morning for fitness testing and physical exams.
Over the weekend, the number of high profile, unsigned, restricted free agents still waiting for contracts dwindled to three when Marcus Johansson and Mikkel Boedker inked their new "bridge contracts".
The Caps signed Johansson to a 2 year, $4 million contract. The Coyotes signed Boedker for 2 years and $4.5 million total dollars.
Cody Hodgson, Nazem Kadri, and Derek Stepan are tired of waiting.
Buffalo’s Cody Hodgson is the one of four RFAs who is most likely to sign his new deal before training camp opens. Hodgson is the exception and not the rule right now. Toronto center Nazem Kadri’s public negotiations There is no acrimony or drama in his contract talks right now. No hold out speculation. No finger pointing. Hodgson said last week that he is confident that his agent and Darcy Regier will iron out all details of his new contract. Ch putt. He want sto play in Buffalo, the team wants him back. The ball in on the green. All that’s left to do is bury the 6 inch putt. Hodgson’s next contract will be a classic “bridge” contract at a higher annual salary than that of Johannson and Boedker. Last September 15, Sabres RFA center signed a two year “bridge” deal for $2,812,500 per season. I see Hodgson signing for a sliver of dollars higher than Ennis signed for. I see a $3M to $3.5M AAV per season. Hodgosn doesn't have a ton of leverage to apply to the Sabres right now. He's their #1 center and they love his offensive production, however, they want him to play the in his D zone the same way he plays in the attack zone. He's still learning to be a 200 foot player. He's almost there. Another mitigating factor is that the Sabres are suddenly deep at center with Tyler Ennis, Mikhail Grigorenko, Steve Ott, Kevin Porter, and hot prospects Zemgus Girgensons and Jonan Larsson.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in salary cap purgatory right now. They are not in hell, yet. Dave Nonis has $4.9 million in remaining cap space for 2013-14. Nonis wants to re-sign his two RFAs Nazem Kadri and Cody Franson. The Leafs said last week that they feel Kadri and Franson can share the remaining $4.9 million in cap space, if they want to play this season. Kadri has vehemently denied that he is seeking a six year deal in the $5 million to $6 million range. Needless to say, splitting 44.9 million with Franson is not sitting well with Kadri right now. He hasn’t said so publicly, but he wants the whole $4.9 million pie to himself. He’s not in a sharing mood. Franson screwed himself by not filing for player designated arbitration early this season. He was eligible to go to arbitration but whiffed at his opportunity. His loss is Kadri’s loss, too. If I’m a betting man, I see Franson signing a contract before Kadri does. Franson can stick his fork in the $4.9 million and cut-off a slice in the $2.2-42.5 million range for two seasons. Kadri can hold out. Or, he can accept a one year $2.3-$2.7 million contract, then try his luck at hitting the lottery next summer. Kadri has zero leverage right now. Leafs management is not about to budge for Kadri. They signed free agent center Dave Bolland this summer to add depth and veteran leadership. Bolland can hold the fort as Toronto’s #2 center behind Tyler Bozak in the event that Kadri takes his hockey net and goes home. On Sunday, Dave Nonis signed UFA forward mason Raymond to a training camp tryout contract. Nonis Knows the type of player that Raymond is, having drafted the player when he was the GM in Vancouver. Kadri’s barking up the wrong tree right now. The Leafs want to see more production from Kadri over a longer period of time. They also want to tell him to shut his mouth, to stop whining and to grow up.
NY Rangers center Derek Stepan’s negotiations have stalled as the player is seeking Adam Henrique term and dollars while Rangers GM Glen Sather has been steadfastly selling a “bridge” deal. The Rangers have $2.1 million in available cap space in 2013. Unless sather makes a trade to create cap space this week, Stepan will have to take or leave the $2.1 million for this season. Stepan is the #2 center in NY behind Brad Richards. He scored 18 goals and 44 points in 48 games last season and he feels like he’s earned the right to be paid. The diving cap is killing Stepan’s argument that he deserves to be paid north of $4 million per season. It is what it is. Stepan can swallow his pride, play for $2.1 million this season and perhaps $2.9-3.2 million next season. That’s it. The Rangers are in cap hell right now. They don’t have the money to pay stepan the money that he wants right now. The 23 year old second line center will have to leave money on the table for the next two seasons and get his big pay day when he turns 25. The Rangers have $37 million available cap space next summer. Maybe Stepan will tell Sather to keep his "bridge deal", and instead sign a one year "winner take all contract". If Stepan hangs 60-65 points on the board, then he'll be in much better position to apply his leverage.
Former Detroit Red Wings forward is UFA. He will be signing with a new team today. The Red Wings are not one of the two teams. Cleary, 34, turned down a three year contract extension before the UFA market opened on July 5.
I'm hearing that Pittsburgh, Dallas, and Tampa have expressed interest in cleary.
The Minnesota Wild have signed veteran UFA center David Steckel to their training camp on a tryout contract.
The Sabres have scored 16 goals while allowing 11. Their +5 goal differential is impressive.
The Red Wings have allowed only four goals while scoring 11. Their +7 goal differential will make them difficult to beat.
So, which goalie will Chadd Cassidy play in the championship game versus Detroit on Monday night. All three of his goalies have won a game for the undefeated Sabres.
Nathan Lieuwen defeated the Columbus Blue Jax 3-2. He made 26 saves and allowed only 2 goals against. 2.00 GAA and .929 save %.
Andrey Makarov defeated the NY Rangers 6-5 in the OT thriller on Friday. Makarov made 27 saves and allowed 5 goals. 3.67 GAA and .844 save %.
Connor Knapp defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 7-4 on Sunday. Knapp made 26 saves and allowed 4 goals against. 4.00 GAA and .867 save %.
My guess is that Cassidy will start Lieuwen vs. Detroit with makarov as his back-up.
Look for Detroit to start Jake Paterson who is 2-0 in Traverse City. He's allowed only 2 goals against in 3 games. He's made 42 saves and has been a difference maker. His 1.00 GAA and .955 save % make him the man.
The Red Wings will be a formidable foe for the Sabres to have to be patient with on Monday night. The Wings are getting balanced scoring from their forwards and D.
Teemu Pulkkonen leads the Wings in scoring with a goal and 3 assists.
Andreas Athanisou has 3 goals and no assists.
Xavier Ouellet has 3 goals and an assist
Ryan Sproul has 3 assists
Tomas Jurco has a goal and an assist
Anthony Mantha has a goal and an assist
Zach Natasiuk has a goal and an assist
Martin Frk has a goal
For the the Sabres, its goal scoring by committee as 10 different players have scored their 16 goals in 3 games played
73 BAPTISTE, NICHOLAS RW 3 4 3 7 +6
79 LOCKE, ERIC C 3 2 4 6 +3
61 ZADOROV, NIKITA D 3 2 1 3 +4
22 LARSSON, JOHAN LW 3 1 2 3 0
28 GIRGENSONS, ZEMGUS C 3 1 2 3 +2
75 JACOBS, COLIN C 3 0 3 3 +3
15 BAILEY, JUSTIN RW 3 2 0 2 +2
54 PETER, TRAINER F 3 1 1 2 +2
43 CATENACCI, DANIEL C 3 0 2 2 +4
45 NELSON, LOGAN C 3 1 0 1 0
55 RISTOLAINEN, RASMUS D 3 1 0 1 +1
34 GAUTHIER-LEDUC, D 2 1 0 1
5 RUHWEDEL, CHAD D 2 0 1 1
58 ROY, FREDERIC LW 1 0 1
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