Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving has been very active this off-season but there is still much work to be done.
Treliving still have five RFAs to re-sign - including three that filed for arbitration - and would also like to get Mark Giordano locked up prior to the season.
There are other issues on his plate, too.
One thing I'm very interested in is to see what the Flames do with Paul Byron.
If you count Sam Bennett the Flames already have 11 forward spots accounted for and that doesn't include Michael Ferland or any of the three forwards who filed for arbitration.
Somebody will have to go (presumably) but I do think the Flames should hold onto Byron for a few reasons.
Bryon is by no means an offensive specialist and watching him in the offensive zone isn't always pretty. In saying that he has 40 points in 104 regular season games over the last two years. That's pretty good production for a bottom-6 forward.
He's also fared well in possession over the last two seasons and has made a positive impact on everyone he has played with at full strength.
Note: minimum 170 minutes together. Three of the four most frequent players he shares the ice with (T.J. Brodie, Mark Giordano & Mikael Backlund) are good possession players but there has clearly been a mutual benefit to playing together.
On top of his solid even-strength play - where most of every game is played - he's a very good penalty killer and has done an excellent job of suppressing shots/shot attempts while down a man.
I'll defer to the graph I made when I wrote the Flames should be wary of giving Bouma too much in dollars and term.
Note: minimum 115 minutes played over the last two seasons. As you can see Byron has been the best the Flames have to offer at 4 vs 5 shot suppression. Not surprisingly allowing less shots and generating a higher percentage of them leads to a better goal differential.
Over the last two years the Flames have scored 33.3%(!) of the goals while playing down a man with Byron on the ice. That leads the team.
In comparison the Flames score just 12.8% of the goals while killing penalties with Bouma on the ice (10th among 13 eligible skaters).
Enough about Bouma, though.
Byron is not a perfect player and his offensive game leaves a lot to be desired. He is, however, very good defensively, excellent on the penalty kill and he won't cost much to keep around.
I think Treliving should do what he can to make room for him.
All numbers via Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com. Recent posts Flames should be wary of paying Lance Bouma