travel_dude

Brouwer and Johnson took up most of the available cap. We have just $14.9m to get Johnny and Monahan signed. If you average it out to $7m each, that left $900k. Jooris made more than that last year. And they still have designs of adding at least one NHL player. As much as BT can go over the cap by Smid's salary, I don't think BT wants to be in that game. So, neither Jooris nor Nakladal would be signed while the top 2 players remain unsigned.

I don't worry about Monahan and Johnny signing. It will happen by WC. It's only July, so there is a lot of time. I think the Nakladal deal is basically in place, just not going to be finalized until after the big deals get done. Nakladal wanted to come to Calgary and wants to come back. The Flames like him. The fact that he hasn't signed anywhere else kind of gives you an idea of the discussions they have already had.

I think Smid is definitely LTIR to start the season, so BT can go over the cap up to his salary. Not that he will, but it gives some options. May see BT pick up an unsigned RFA or one nearing arbitration. Rakell or Hayes would be options. Would love to get Kucherov, but no way we have anything worth him in trade. Other than that, it will probably be September when the trades and Stockton signings start. AHL deals to fill up the remaining spots with at least one vet. Dev Camp invites that impress will get signed. Maybe one or two before then. Nakladal will probably only happen after Johnny and Monahan sign, but I think the intent from both sides is to get the deal done. He'll get signed prior to WC. though, as he would need to be insured.

I can's say for certainty, but a lot of the invites would not be able to play in the AHL this year. The Flames do have the contract space to sign some of them, but their contracts wouldn't count anyway against the limit if they slide. I think the guys let walk were mostly fringe NHL'ers at best. If they were re=signed, they would be for two-way deals. It's not really fair to guys like Shore or Arnold since there is no real progression for them to the NHL on the Flames. What you will see is some AHL vet players being signed on AHL only deals. Maybe a tough guy or two. We are lacking a captain right now. Who do we have there that could fill that role? Usually it tends to be a career AHL'er. Candidates might be Janko, Klimchuk or Hamilton.

Grant was looking for a one-way deal with the Flames. I think he was looked at the same way Shore was; go enough for the AHL, not quite good enough for the NHL. The Sabres signed him to a 2-way deal. I doubt he cracks the roster unless major injuries occur.

I don't worry either way. I would prefer to get him over to NA, just to ensure that he gets signed and he starts on NA ice. He's still an unknown quantity playing overseas. Development wise, he may be just fine staying in Europe. I just look at the style of game he plays and think we are lacking in that in the AHL right now. Spoon is the only one that is close to being a potential NHL player that plays a hard checking game. No, I don't count Kanzig as being close to NHL.

Johnny and Monahan were the only ones that showed progression year over year. It's one thing to have a good season bookended by ok or bad seasons. It another thing to show progression. Bennett was hard to gauge, since he didn't play center much of the season. My concern is less with GG than one of the A/coaches. Cameron was known for yelling. At least that's how I heard him described.

There is always the option of the Flames to negotiate with the team/league to get him over. IIRC, they did that with Kylington.

Schneider goes back to junior - too young MacDonald, if he turns pro will go to ECHL (IMHO) to get the extra games Stevenson - not signed Johnson - not signed Bruce - junior - too young Harrison - likely back to college; has one year left I think you have everyone else. Tuulola likely to junior, unless he impresses at Young Stars/camp

I would only suggest the AHL if the Flames feel he is closer to NHL than junior or the CHL team is terrible at turning out prospects. Not sure what Everett is like for that. The other thing is we have literally seen nothing of his abilities. Dev camp is really just getting a look. Young Stars and main camp should be the place where those initial views are confirmed or replaced. So, while I am excited to have a player of his size and style, I will hold off any evaluation of what to do with him until he has shown what he has at camp. As far as a trade goes, I think it only works if the other team involved has an open spot for an import or they traded imports.

I quoted the Lucic part because that's how he described himself. I have no idea if the comp is even close. You have probably read the scouting on the kid. At 6'3" 227 already, and his "heavy" game, I tend to think he would be better suited to the AHL. Maybe he goes to junior and it's like Draisaitl going back to junior; he dominates. I am sure that BT will decide what is best for the player. INTERNATIONAL SCOUTING SERVICE - RANKED 54TH OVERALL Big and strong kid and plays a heavy game. Hard on puck and is hard to handle down low. Power forward with good hands. Uses his size and body positioning to protect the puck and take it to the net effectively. Willing to go into the corners and in front of the net. Lacks speed, however he is a powerful skater and once he gets going, he is hard to stop. He has a good skill set and has scored numerous big goals for his team this season. Understands the game. Solid two-way winger. NHL Potential: 3rd line winger FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS - RANKED 84TH OVERALL Tuulola is a prime example of the Finnish dedication to solid two-way, unselfish hockey. He plays a pest game to get under his opponents skin. He uses every inch and pound of his frame to go to the dirty areas of the ice, clears room in the crease and plays hard along the wall. Tuulola enjoys to get his nose dirty and is seemingly always available for a little scrum after the whistle. He plays with a physical edge and finished his checks. He has impressive speed and great acceleration for his size. In the neutral zone, Tuulola is a very dangerous player because he can hit you hard and create turnovers. His shot is very lethal and more often than not, he is the target of his teammates for taking the shot. He can also make good one-touch passes to his teammates, and is not the kind of player who creates many giveaways. Tuulola is also a smart and patient player who waits for the right moment to forecheck and cut passing lanes. He acclimates himself to the situation well, and can go from playing shutdown defence to playing high-tempo offence at the flick of a switch. We love his tenacity and willingness to do whatever it takes to get his team in a good situation to succeed. Offensively, Tuulola is still rather unpolished, but solid, and the tools are there for him to be a good player if his development continues on pace. NHL Potential: Middle six power winger

The only problem I have with him playing in junior is that he already has NHL size and he plays "like Lucic". So he is going to be a power forward playing against kids or smaller/lighter players. This is sort of the same as sending back an overage Carroll, Kanzig or Smith's draft+1 season. Man among boys. Can they play him in the AHL and then send him to junior if he can't cut it? When is the cutoff for using junior import players, or is it strictly related to finalizing junior rosters?

As of June 2017, some teams will lose very good goalies for nothing. Elliott will be extended and protected before the end of the year. The smart choice would be to explore the cost to re-sign now and if reasonable, pull the trigger.

Would he even be healthy by October? Do you want to go with an injured goalie as your backup, with possibly no camp. I don't think he would sign for less than $2.5m. He can get a job overseas for that kind of money.

Ortio needed to play stretches of game to improve. I don't know that they can do that this year. I could see a B2B game followed by another start, but not a stretch of 4 games in a row. If they sign him, he will get a 1-way deal. He may end up on waivers if they want him to go to Stockton or they may trade him if he doesn't work out.

I don't understand the need for a 2-way deal. He faces waivers. so we save the full cap. All you are doing is saving the owners money. Besides, no way is he going to accept $70k to play in the AHL on a 2-way deal. He can head overseas and make more.

You may or may not recall that we actually faced the top goalies this year. Either in B2B games or in division games played in a row. Somehow we managed to be 11th in goals for, yet worst in the league in goals against. Goaltending was the primary reason for this pathetic showing in goals against.

I'm actually surprised you are the first to mention this. In some ways it was a smart deal at the time. Locked them up so that now Hall's deal looks like a steal. On the other hand, convert those deals to today's cap and dollars, and they are closer to $8m, at least with Eberle's.

A few things transpired to make us a far worse team last year. The first was having a horrible pair of goalies. Leabue average from either would have gone a long way. The second was coaching failing to adapt. Lastly, the defense were in disarray. Passive defensive positioning, overuse of stretch passes, no Brodie to help bring Gio back from a major injury.... Even with all that, we were still only 10 points out. The pluses were that Johnny was a star to begin with, so scoring was not a big issue. He carried the team offensively and Brodie did the same on the blueline.

A 45 game season for McDavid, with him tearing it up only gets them 17 wins. Their record without him was actually better. Go figure. If they improve it will be due to getting scoring from the backend and decent defending. A -42 in goal differential is just plain bad. And that was with a decent goalie.

Think about what options they used this past year, and how Johnny was able to still be top 6 in scoring. Plug is an exaggeration, but essentially the other two will lead the line. Will EDM be any better? McDavid only helped them win something like 17 of the 45 games he played. They will start Pulju this season, so he will need time to adjust to the NA ice. They haven't addressed the defense at all. If they do, it will make them weaker somewhere else. They have to trade Eberle or Nuge or Hall to do that. Even that will be lucky to bring them a Shatty or equivalent. Winnipeg will be better, but they are only a Wildcard concern. Arizona couldn't be any worse. They beat us because we had sub-par goaltending. They haven't really added anything yet. Strome and Dvorak maybe. Still light on defense, unless they play Chychrun this year. Vancouver is going nowhere. They are trying to rebuild in place, but their GM is making all the wrong moves. Last year the West was an enigma. I don't think that will happen again.

^^^^^^ I think Anaheim is beatable this year, in Anaheim. Andersen was always an issue for us, even though Gibson beat us a lot. We had chances to win every game, but were mostly let down by goaltending. They are also going to lose one of their top D-men. We finally have goaltending to beat some of the Pacific teams we struggled against. If we can beat EDM with sub-par goalies, we should have no issue. Van is on a re-cycle/re-build phase. If Arizona actually played some of their kids, they might be a lot better.

Ballsy prediction... Well, that's a prediction. You talked about the positive things that improve this club, then you look at last season's results and don't think we can improve by 20 points? League worst goaltending swapped out for a league leader. There's 20 points right there. A coaching change can happen mid-season and still have great results. Boudreau made a change during Anaheim's goal scoring drought, and they went from being below us to being tops in the Pacific. Having a camp to implement is not that bad. We need a top 3 RW. Honestly, you could put a plug on that line and they will still lead the team. With a more stable defense core (trade/buy out Wideman and Smid) and decent goaltending, you can expect that we will not lose as many of those 2-1 or 1-0 games. Definitely we should have a real good chance when we score more than 3 goals.

Only way it happens is if Mason stays in junior for his overage year. That doesn't appear to be the best situation, since they should be staggering contracts going pro. Schneider can possibly stay 2 years in Junior, while Parsons will likely go pro in 2017 or 2018,

Ortio needs to stay away from the AHL. That is Gillies net to start and Rittich's to backup. If he isn't able to win a job as the backup or the Flames don't want to take the chance on him with 30 games, then let him go. He has no value in that case.