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As we continue to approach the end of the 2013-14 NHL season with playoffs nearing its end, debate continues to resurface around not only who the Calgary Flames are expected to draft, but also who they might look into acquiring over the summer.
As things stand, the Flames have committed themselves to $38M and 13 roster spots moving into next season, leaving them with $15M just to reach the NHL cap floor of $53M. What does this all essentially mean? Well, the Flames brass have some cash to spend and according to Brian Burke, they intend on spending right up to the max if need be.
With that established, Calgary has four NHL RFA players to look into extending in TJ Galiardi, Paul Byron, Joe Colborne, Lance Bouma, and five UFA players in Mike Cammalleri, Kevin Westgarth, Chris Butler, Chris Breen, and Joey MacDonald.
Of these players, and as previously mentioned, I expect the Flames to make offers to Galiardi, Byron, Colbourne, Cammalleri, Westgarth, and Butler. The others, at least for me, aren’t all that high on my propriety list and I do not feel will continue on with the team. I know many of you continue to feel that Lance Bouma should be, and will be extended, but I feel that they may have contractual issues with this player who is likely looking to get a raise in pay or move up in the ranks. He’s replaceable, and will only be signed if the understands his role. That’s how I see it, anyways.
So let’s say for argument sake that the players who I feel could be re-signed take a 25-50% increase on average for their duties. Given that most, outside of maybe Cammalleri, were all on “prove your worth… type contracts last year, it should stand to reason that they would all get some sort of bump in pay. Moreover, none of these guys are future top 6 type players who need to be locked down, so I feel a percentage based bump in pay is more than fair…even maybe leaning on the heavy side for some.
When considering these “pay raises…, consider two things – a) the cap is going up and b) the Flames had some young players on cheap contracts who worked their tails off. With the above logic, and having some contracts rounded up, we could be looking at an annual cap hit of 1.75M for Galiardi, 1M for Byron, 1.75M for Colborne, 1M for Westgarth, 2.25M for Butler.
If I’m somewhat accurate with these predictions, the Flames would then still have $7.25M available to reach the cap floor. This is where the discussion of Mike Cammalleri comes. If it’s not apparent by now, the Flames have a decent amount of cash available to them and for that reason I strongly believe they offer Cammalleri a number somewhere around $6.25M.
This is a talented vet player who managed 45pts in 65 games last year with Calgary. He will fetch near that on the open market, and the Flames would hate to lose a player of his value for nothing. Keep in mind that they have until July 1st, or else Mike is available to anyone who wants to place a bid. There is always the chance that a team who is very interested in his services could offer a prospect or late pick to the Flames for early negotiating rights, but I wouldn’t count on this to happen.
Anyways, if the Flames extend the UFA/RFA’s which I mentioned, and also lock Mike down in the 6.25M range, they would be floating around the cap floor, leaving them with around $18M to play with, and four roster spots to fill. Needless to say, with $18M available to them, there is plenty of room for improvements on this roster, and room for young prospects to earn a paycheck in the upcoming years.
Below is a list of UFA/RFA’s who I feel that the Flames should try and make pitches toward, in order of likely price tags. Clearly there will be a need for offer sheets or trades for the negotiating rights for the RFA’s listed. This will all depend on how contract discussions are progressing with each respective team, however I feel that Treliving may be willing to make some bold moves in order to acquire some promising young RFA’s.
UFA - Paul Stastny - Ryan Callahan - Devin Setoguchi - Nikolai Kulemin - Steve Downie
RFA - Ryan O’Reilly - Patrik Berglund - Brayden Schenn - Niederreiter, Nino - Kulikov, Dmitry - Johansen, Ryan - Reimer, James - Sobotka, Vladimir - Ashton, Carter
The above lists are players who I feel that the Flames could show intesret in. With relationships/connections between Brian Burke and some of the former players, I could see a “wink wink, nudge nudge… being sent to Treliving from up above with respect to guys like Kulemin, Reimer, Ashton.
What about you? Are there players on that list who you disagree with? Are there players you feel that should be included?
Thanks for reading!