The Calgary Flames have a handful of players in line for big raises this off-season.
Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau headline that list but it seems likely another notable restricted free agent, Joe Colborne, will be taken care of first.
Via Sportsnet: Treliving must find a new head coach and prepare for the NHL Draft this month, but that didn’t stop him from opening up talks with Colborne’s agent, J.P. Barry, upon returning from Russia last month, when he co-GM’d Team Canada to an IIHF world championship.“Since he’s been back, I know we’ve been in some talks, and hopefully we’re getting closer and closer,… Colborne told Sportsnet 960 The Fan on Wednesday.
“I’m not thinking that it’s going to take too, too long here.…
Colborne is a decent player but the Flames should be very wary of committing much in the way of term or dollars; especially given the cap crunch they'll soon find themselves in.
Colborne's counting numbers were good but a lot of that was percentage driven.
This past season Colborne shot 19%, and tallied 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists) in 73 games. In his first two full seasons he shot ~12% and tallied 56 points (18 goals, 38 assists) in 144 games.
I'm more inclined to believe he's the player we saw during his first two seasons as a Flame as opposed to the guy we saw last year; particularly down the stretch.
GM Brad Treliving has to re-sign his two best forwards and find a starting goaltender this off-season. That will cost a lot of money, which is why he can't afford to get caught up in the percentages and pay Colborne to be something he is not.
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