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Originally Posted by Where ru Chris O'Sullivan
What!?!!?!!?!?
1) I am not versed on the CBA - some posters are saying if we had 49 contracts we could infact (I assume sign him?) and keep him here from now til our season/hopefully post-season ends? (hence wishing we had 49, not 50 contracts in-house).
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Ok, more patiently this time since you do seem to be legitimately confused.
There are two issues with keeping Baertschi around. The first is that he is an emergency call up from junior. We can only recall a player in this situation as long as he is the third (or later) emergency recall. Right now those emegency recalls are Nemisz, Desbiens and Baertschi. The moment an injured forward returns (Stempniak, Bouwma, Backlund, Cammalleri), Baertschi has to go back to Portland. The Flames have no option here.
The second issue is the 50 contract limit. As a junior, his contract does not count against our total until he plays his 10th game. Baertschi is already signed (otherwise he couldn't play), but activating his deal would put us at 51, and that can't happen. Thus, he can't play after his ninth game regardless.
Should the Flames have anticipated losing 350 man games to injury necessitating the emergency recall of a kid from junior who just so happens to blow even the most optimistic expectations away? Obviously you think so. I don't, myself. And even if we had the open contract spot, I would still limit him to nine games. Burning a year of Baertschi's deal for what could be as little as four or five extra games is terrible asset management. Far,
far worse than the arguments that we should have dealt guys like Sarich or Hannan for even a pitiful draft pick (and really, where would we be now if we had?).
To address the end of your post - nobody is discounting Baertschi. Hell, everyone is just as excited about him as you. But perspective is required, and the good of the franchise has to be considered.