cross16

I don't think they do, that money isn't needed to Gudbranson it's to sign everyone else. The Flames have options here but it is very tight for next season. Gaudreau (9.5) Lindholm (4.85) Tkachuk (9) Mang (5.4) Backs (5.35) Coleman (4.9) Lucic ( 5.25) Monahan (6.3) Toffoli (4.25) Dube (2.3) ??? ???? Hanifin (4.95) Andersson (4.55) Kyl (2.75) Tanev (4.5) Valimaki (1.55) ??? Goalies 6.75 That team counts 82.15mill and the cap is projected to be 82.5 and I think that's with me being conservative on what contracts will be. Buying out Monahan opens up 4 million but you need 2.5 to 3 just to complete that team so that is spoken for. Not to mention buying out Monahan leaves a gap down the middle so who fills that? I don't really see a scenario where the Flames can a pay a bottom pairing dman more than 2 mill. Your moving out a pretty sizable salary (in addition to Monahan) in order to do that.

Unless they are planning on moving out a couple big salaries it's all they are going to be able to afford. I'm not sure they can even bring him back at 1.5 unless the numbers on Tkachuk, Gaudreau, Mang and Kylington come in much lower than expected. I mean good on Gudbranson for having a career year and proving many (including myself) wrong but in the end this isn't a hard decision for me. You've had a player who for the vast majority of his career hasn't been very good and now you have him performing a career year at the age of 30 in the midst of a career year for many on the team. I think the Flames would be making a huge mistake tying to prioritize Gudbranson. I think it's a situation where if there is mutual interest you see what is left over and see if a deal can be had but there are other priorities to take care of.

I don't mind trying term but it would have to be a wicked deal for the Flames. I don't think, mostly due to the cap, that it makes sense to find a fair long term deal it would only make sense if he wants to give you a bit of a deal on the AAV. Not suggestion he should do this but if your the Flames it doesn't hurt to ask but unless they are wiling to move our either Gaudreau or Tkachuk I just don't see a scenario where they can give him a fair long term AAV. For multiple reasons I think 1 year makes sense. i don't want to sound harsh because he's been a great story but I'm still not a believer he is making the difference some think he is. I think he's still playing well don't get me wrong but I think he's cooled off from the start he had and I chalk up a lot of the success to Chris Tanev. I think that pairing is really what helped Kylington find his game and Tanev is the perfect compliment to Kylington's style. So long story short I don't really see the benefit to the Flames going term unless they get a deal and if I were Kyliington I wouldn't want to give them a deal so I'm not seeing how they get middle ground. if he's willing to sign for under 4 on term I'd be wiling but I think he bets on himself so 1 year should work well for both sides. I don't personally think this turns into a situation where the Flames would get burned by not offering up a longer term deal.

When your top line makes a combined 18 million dollars I think you can afford to have a bottom pairing pulling in $5.5. When that same top line is probably going to cost at least another 5-6 million next year you lose the luxury of having a bottom pairing be that expensive. Reality is that both Z and Gudbranson are very likely gone unless they are willing to play on discounts.

You don't need arbitration cases to make your point though. The system is based on what comparable players have signed for not necessarily previous awards. I think it's best for both sides to avoid arbitration and I don't really think either is going to get what they want by going through the process.

Because no Dman has in 2 years. Last player to settle in arbitration was Tyler Bertuzzi in 2020. It's pretty hard to find a direct comparable because last season Kylington had no case and was on waivers. He is popping this year so to find a direct comparison over the last 2 years is tough. He's pretty comparable to Weegar, Gustav Forsling, Graves with Forsling being maybe his best comp. The most common numbers are 3.1 to 3.7 but in most cases you see more duration over the career than you see with Kylington. Both were in sort of in and out of the lineup for multiple seasons and then found traction. In a shortened seasons last year Forsling numbers are really close to what Kylington has done so far this year. He got 2.6 over 3 years. I'm not really seeing the comps that can support Kylington getting more than 3mill on a 1 year deal.

Oh he will get a big raise for sure. I'm thinking between 2.5 mill to 3. Have a hard time seeing him get more than that though in arbitration. It's a big raise but I still think it beats going north of 4 on a long term deal.

The only one I would question is Kylington. i will be very surprised if the Flames go term on him. I think they go for a 1 year deal to save some cap space and also to see is he can do this again. With 2 year to UFA I don't see the rush in getting him on a long term deal personally.

ya to clarify I thought the flames took bad penalties. Officiating maybe wasn’t great but wasn’t a key issue for me. Flames needed to be more disciplined

Hard to be upset about this one for me. I don't think they played poorly at 5 on 5, they got were done in by bad penalties, a bad pk and then the game just went off the rails. It happens. Correct a few things and move on but I wouldn't be putting a lot of stock into this one personally. one of those games that easily could have swayed the other way.

Becks' been back for 5 games. Held pointless in his first two and now 4 goals (1 into a empty net mind you) and 6 points in his last 3 games. Good to see.

I think this speaks more to the issues with NHL officiating and less about McDavid. I see both sides here, I think he gets a way with quite a bit (especially some questionable hits/elbows) but I also agree that he should draw more penalties consistently. But all he does is highlight that the issue is consistently of NHL officiating and not McDavid himself.

Aside from a roster issue brining up Valimaki would likely take the Flames out of trade conversations as it would eat into their available cap space, which already isn't high. Not likely going to happen.

There are 33 games before the playoffs. IMO that's enough games to go through multiple cycles of hot and cold and I think there is still room to make their game better. I think what isn't getting discussed enough about during this streak is how they are doing it. Typically during a streak like this you get lucky. Your goalie steals you a game, you win off a good/bad bounce or you win a few in OT, something like that. While I am certainly not going to make the case they've been perfect, I do think they've gotten some shoot luck, they've really earned this in streak. IMO there is only 1 game that Markstrom had to steal (Toronto) and the rest I thought they were the better team and really earned the victories. It feels different.

I think Parsons needs a fresh start. I don't think they would have qualified him last year if it weren't for the expansion draft. Best for both sides to move on I think. Just hasn't worked here, for many reasons very little of which is anyone's fault, but hopefully Parsons can get another shot elsewhere.

A player who I don't think is getting enough credit this year is Rasmus Anderson. 3 points last night and IMO was the best Flames on the ice not named Markstrom 11 pts in his last 13 games 12th best dman in the league for expected goals for/60 20th best dman in the league for Expected goals For% 30th best dman in the league for High danger chances For Leads all Flames Dmen (and players for that matter) for Time on Ice at 22:26 2nd Highest Avg TOI at 5 on 5 (behind only Tanev) On pace for a career high 47 points. Tremendous bounce back season for Andersson. I think he's been a key player for them in transition this year and why their attack is so balanced and consistent.

I agree and would just add it was a pretty heavy special teams game too. I thought that was just Sutter managing minutes than it was anything else. For a B2B I thought it was an excellent effort. They faded at times but you expect that, Markstrom shut the door when he had to but the Flames also stepped on the gas when they needed to as well. What a job by the PK, not only to kill those early penalties but to kill them with hardly allowing any chances. Impressive work from that unit last night. Only thing for me in this game was penalties. Sutter can't be happy about that as many of them were bad penalties to take. Need to clean that up. I thought the Ducks were fun to watch too. Fast, aggressive, high pressure. Could be a real good team in a year or 2 if they can add a high end piece.

Pretty entertaining sequence there from Gaudreau and Lindholm. Love that Johnny not only had the awareness that Lindholm was that close but that he looked mad he passed it.

That is some pretty impressive back tracking from Gaudreau to create a turnover which led to a scoring chance. so bought into the details of his game right now. Impressive stuff

Who said you can't? I didn't love their game against Toronto either and while there were some trends you didn't like they also got it corrected these last few games. Mistakes are always going to exist, just a question of how many and what the trend is. At the end of the day even if you put the wins aside and look at how the team is playing there are a ton of positives and IMO when you look at how they are playing the schedule, backs to backs and opponents don't matter. Control what you can control is all you can do and the Flames are doing that at a high level right now.

I mean it is February why should they be playing their best hockey right now? There will always be things to clean up but overall I feel like it it's getting very nit picky to find something negative about this team. over the last 10 games at 5 on 5 Flames are: 1st in the NHL in Corsi F%, Fenwck F%, Shots f%, Exp goals for%, Scoring chances for %, high danger chances %, high danger chances for. 2nd in the NHL in expected goals against, high danger chances against, 3rd in the NHL in scoring chances against. The puck is going in at a likely unsustainable rate for them right now but this has been a well earned winning streak. The have been extremely good at 5 on 5.

Nice to hear. Was super disappointing to hear about the injury after the start he had.

I don't think Monahan is playing poorly this season. He didn't have a great start but he's been solid for the last couple of months. 5th best Expected goals against 5 on 5 10th in Expected goals % (tied essentially with Coleman) 1st in high danger chance for % I think Monahan is playing as well as you can ask of him given the circumstances. His tightened up his d game a bit and he's playing more physical. He's always been limited in certain aspects, namely speed and transition, and that just gets highlighted when you aren't playing with Gaudreau.

I don't see any difference in Monahan this year versus year's past. The difference is he doesn't have Johnny and Sutter is asking him to do different things than previous coaches. I don't see anything there that suggests there is still an injury.

Sounds like Johnny and Tkachuk are indeed priorities.