[Rumour] Dreger: Flames haven't officially put Russell on the trade market yet - Page 2 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

sureLoss · 02-09-2016, 08:54 PM

Kypreos on Sportsnet says he heard a week ago the Flames felt they wouldn't be able to re-sign Russell.

Spector says his understanding is Flames would love to re-sign him and that if Russell were actually available he would be gone already.

dino7c · 02-09-2016, 08:54 PM

Russell is a good d-man I honestly don't get the hate on CP

him and Dougie are a great 2nd pairing

MrMike · 02-09-2016, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dino7c

Russell is a good d-man I honestly don't get the hate on CP

him and Dougie are a great 2nd pairing

I fully agree, and would love him at a price worthy of our 4th D man that if he got pushed to our 5th would still be okay to swallow. 3x3

sureLoss · 02-09-2016, 09:36 PM

Nick Kypreos @RealKyper
I expect #Flames Russell traded before deadline if he doesn't resign before then. Plan is to not keep him like Cammalleri a few years ago

Textcritic · 02-09-2016, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dino7c

Russell is a good d-man I honestly don't get the hate on CP

him and Dougie are a great 2nd pairing

I don't know if I would go so far as to call him "great," but he is certainly competent. I believe that Russell would be on the second pair on most teams in this league.

Quite often I think people expect a #3–4 defense pairing to be a second, equivalent set of the #1–2 pair.

Erick Estrada · 02-09-2016, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dino7c

Russell is a good d-man I honestly don't get the hate on CP

him and Dougie are a great 2nd pairing

From the guy that was all over Hiller for tonight blaming him for the game being close?

browna · 02-09-2016, 10:03 PM

If the value is there, trade him. No point in dangling him out there....make him available on the trade market only when one of his similar comparisons gets traded, and let the teams who lost out on that player come calling the Flames and competing with offers.

If nothing, hold onto him and see if he'll take a Glencross cowboy discount come summer.

Erick Estrada · 02-09-2016, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I don't know if I would go so far as to call him "great," but he is certainly competent. I believe that Russell would be on the second pair on most teams in this league.

Quite often I think people expect a #3–4 defense pairing to be a second, equivalent set of the #1–2 pair.

He's a good player at his current contract. The problem is that he wants a raise on a likely long term deal. Can't keep everyone in a salary capped league and IMO he's more of a nice to have than a must have player to keep.

Textcritic · 02-09-2016, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

He's a good player at his current contract. The problem is that he wants a raise on a likely long term deal. Can't keep everyone in a salary capped league and IMO he's more of a nice to have than a must have player to keep.

Therein is the rub: How much is he worth keeping, and for how long? I think he is less expendable than most of the forwards, and every other defensemen not named Giordano, Brodie, and Hamilton. There does not really look to be anyone in the system ready to make the jump for a little while, so three more years of Russell is certainly palatable. I'm not sure of the price tag, though.

DJones · 02-09-2016, 10:17 PM

If we can resign him for around 3 - 3.5 million I'd like to keep him.

Wideman, Smid, and Engellend should be all gone before him.

He plays Flames hockey. Never understood the hate

Karl · 02-09-2016, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJones

If we can resign him for around 3 - 3.5 million I'd like to keep him.

Wideman, Smid, and Engellend should be all gone before him.

He plays Flames hockey. Never understood the hate

Ideally yeah, but I doubt the Flames can get rid of them this year.

It would be nice to get something decent for a couple of our players, but I don't see Wideman, Smid or Engelland as being those players that other teams will take in trade this year unless we're getting similar problem contracts coming back to us.

Street Pharmacist · 02-09-2016, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJones

If we can resign him for around 3 - 3.5 million I'd like to keep him.

Wideman, Smid, and Engellend should be all gone before him.

He plays Flames hockey. Never understood the hate

Him playing "Flames Hockey" is okay if the reason the Flames don't play better hockey

dino7c · 02-09-2016, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

From the guy that was all over Hiller for tonight blaming him for the game being close?

because he let the Leafs back on the game

Hiller won't be in the NHL next year...Russell certainly will

flamesforcup · 02-10-2016, 12:17 AM

id try pulling what the yotes did with vermette which is dealing him for assets than resigning him. Hopefully we can buy out widedogs

Resolute 14 · 02-10-2016, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

From the guy that was all over Hiller for tonight blaming him for the game being close?

In fairness, that third goal stunk to high heaven. One doesn't need to hate Hiller to believe that.

As far as Russell goes, I would like to re-sign him. He's a decent enough 4-5. But cost matters, and there is little risk to spending the next two weeks trying to sort it out before making a final call.

DJones · 02-10-2016, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Him playing "Flames Hockey" is okay if the reason the Flames don't play better hockey

See, that's the argument I don't get.

For a #4 he's a great skater, a good passer, and does a good job of keeping it in the offensive zone.

He doesn't take penalties, and he has an A for a reason.

He get's #### on for having bad advanced stats and not being able to get it out of his zone. Frankly as soon as he was away from Wideman I just don't see the trapped in anymore. It seems like he spends a lot of time in the offensive zone with Hamilton.

Where on earth are you going to find another #4 for under 4 M that is better than him?

Coach · 02-10-2016, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dion

I'd like to see the Flames resign him.

Me too, but not for what he'll get on the open market, which is what he will rightfully want (or close too). I've said it before: Russell at 2-3? Yes. Russell at 4-5? Enjoy your payday.

Huntingwhale · 02-10-2016, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJones

Where on earth are you going to find another #4 for under 4 M that is better than him?

I've come around on the Russell issue because of your point. I agree with Pharmacist in that if we ever hope to take the next step, we need to upgrade on guys like Russell. But where oh where are we going to find that top 4 upgrade for cheaper? Defencemen, especially top 4 guys, are at such a premium in the league. Every team needs more. No team has too many. It's been like this for decades.

I'm a big advocate on moving Russell out for assets, but truthfully that is going to hurt the team because we lose a top 4 player. I'm sure Treliving would love to upgrade on him, but where do we find a guy cheaper who plays better? UFA? That definitely won't be cheaper. We can find that person within our own organization, but they will take time to develop. Can we wait that long? Or, we can hope Treliving pulls a Feaster and finds a D buried on a teams depth chart and are willing to move him for cheap, similar to when we acquired Russell from St. Louis. We then pray they can play in the top 4 AND are better then Russell. The 3rd option is to re-sign him for a similar contract.

I see both sides of the argument. I want an upgrade on Russell and him traded for assets while he still has value. But this isn't a case of addition by subtraction. Trading Russell leaves a hole that is damned hard to fill.

Vinny01 · 02-10-2016, 08:46 AM

The talking heads make it sound like if the Flames wanted to trade Russell they could do it very easily. This is a team that has 2 average to smallish Dmen in the top pair. I think if they can get value for Russell and add some picks they need to do it.

FeyWest · 02-10-2016, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJones

See, that's the argument I don't get.

For a #4 he's a great skater, a good passer, and does a good job of keeping it in the offensive zone.

He doesn't take penalties, and he has an A for a reason.

He get's #### on for having bad advanced stats and not being able to get it out of his zone. Frankly as soon as he was away from Wideman I just don't see the trapped in anymore. It seems like he spends a lot of time in the offensive zone with Hamilton.

Where on earth are you going to find another #4 for under 4 M that is better than him?

Yes and no... I find yes he's in the offensive zone a lot but he always seems to hit shinpads whenever he shoots, holds onto the puck for extended amount of time and when he decides to pass it the puck is intercepted. Just look at last night (Given this was in our zone) he's standing behind the net for what seemed like a minute before trying to make an outlet pass/clear the zone and it's easily picked off and there was a mad scramble in front of our net.

He turns the puck over way too much and he's not going to be under $4M... his penchant for blocking shots his agent is going to push for a higher value contract due to the increased health risks to the way he plays or he's going to get a long term contract. Unfortunately I don;t really want to see him at $3M either we have other priorities at the moment in the names of Monahan, Gaudreau and soon Bennett. We have enough Defensive depth I think we will have a "Russell-esque" type player if not better.