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The Calgary Flames have recently announced the official retiring of veteran goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff as the team prepares to enter into its 2013 NHL preseason camp. As with all other teams, they will need to address their strengths and weaknesses in order to prepare themselves for an 82 game schedule.
One thing that the Flames have which most teams currently do not is cap space. Since Kiprusoff’s money has come off the books, the Flames now have $13.5M in cap space with their entire roster signed. This is a problem a lot of teams wish they had, despite maybe having the roster which the Flames possess as a result…I know, it’s not exactly pretty. Either way, having so much cap space allows for several scenarios for the team to improve their roster without doing anything drastic.
There are currently a few teams over the salary cap at the moment who will need to look at dumping players or salaries in order to fit in their signed players and stay compliant. There are also other teams who need to do the same in order to sign their RFA’s. Here are, according to Capgeek, the teams who currently find themselves over the cap limit as of today:
2013-14 Cap Space
1. Philadelphia Flyers »$69,153,522 -$2,053,522
2. Boston Bruins » $70,223,810 -$1,101,310
3. Pittsburgh Penguins » $65,398,333 -$1,098,333
4. Detroit Red Wings » $67,947,879 -$637,879
5. San Jose Sharks »$65,131,667 -$406,667
6. Los Angeles Kings »$64,386,894 -$86,894 24
While most of these teams are just barely over the salary cap and won't likely take too much effort to comply, there are a few teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs who, while not being over the cap, have two RFA’s to sign with only around $4M in remaining space. Further, there are teams like the St Louis Blues who have the money to spend, but are having a difficult time negotating with an RFA of their own.
Point is - there are several teams out there who have problems where salaries are concerned and the Flames, well, could potentially offer some assistance.
Although I do not see any scenarios where the Flames and the Leafs could make any deals to help each other out at this time, it will be interesting to see what the Flames decide to do as the year progresses. GM Jay Feaster and newly acquired Director of Hockey Operations Brian Burke maintain that their club will spend right to the limit as an attempt to stay competitive, though they plan on spending their money “wisely”.
"The issue is we want to spend the money wisely," he said. "Until we see value, we're going to stay where we are."
With that in mind, it doesn’t sound like the Flames will be adding anyone to their roster prior to the regular season starting, and I don’t really blame them. The Flames have a young team which will be entering a full NHL season without too much veteran leadership or any star players. They will need time to have a good close look at their younger players before deciding what changes and or upgrades should happen right away, and which ones can stand to wait.
The tricky part about dealing with a rebuilding team is not to rush certain players and positions to the point where you actually impede development. The Flames have a ton of young talent who have not exactly had much chance to prove themselves to the organization as of yet, and rushing any moves to immediately improve the roster on paper could hinder just that.
I wholeheartedly expect the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs to make a few moves throughout the next season or two as I am sure that Brian Burke has his eyes set on a few players for his previous organization who may not be getting a chance in Toronto. A name that keeps coming up for me is that of Joe Colborne.
I brought it up a while ago, but if the Leafs are really hard pressed to sign both Nazem Kadri and Cody Franson to extensions, moving John-Michael Liles to the Flames might be an option for them to shed some much needed salary.
The only problem in this transaction, at least for me, is the fact that the Flames can’t really afford to be giving away any draft selections as they find themselves as the start of a rebuild, and the Leafs can't take back any salary. However, if a guy like Joe Colborne were added to the transaction in order to sweeten the pot, perhaps a deal of some sort could be worked out between the two teams.
Not only is Colborne not getting a ton of ice team with the Leafs, but they have also recently invited Mason Raymond(left winger, I know) to training camp on a PTO, another player who they won’t be able to sign if they end of liking him.
Just a few thoughts to throw around…What do you guys think?
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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