Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Yamoto
Wideman has the potential to go down as the worst signing in Flames history. Right now I'd go with Turek or Bouwmeester. But I could see the Wideman contract looking so bad the next GM has no choice but to buy it out.
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I don't know if I could call a contract that cost the Flames nothing but money and cap space (which of course is far from nothing) and turned into a first round pick and 2 prospects 3 and half years later as the worst contract in Flames' history. True, following the same logic Gomez' contract wasn't bad for the Rangers because of Sather's ability to make trades but Bouwmeester's contract was never "untradable" in my opinion.
The team underwhelmed and underperformed once he got here but that's going to happen when you're relying on a past his prime Langkow and a square-peg-in-a-round-hole-struggling Jokinen to make up your top 6 centers. Yep Bouwmeester cost cap space but opportunity cost only matters when there's actually an opportunity. If there wasn't a center that the Flames missed out on because of Bouwmeester it doesn't matter, and I don't think there was. The ones available that would have made a difference cost assets the Flames didn't have.
So Bouwmeester's contract might have cost the Flames Cammalleri (even though Sutter made it clear he thought he was a "small player" and the Jokinen trade had already begun counting down the days). Big whoop. Cammalleri got a worse contract anyways and would likely not have been able to get a 1st round pick+ back.
On the other hand the Flames have had contracts that were negative value. Many of them weren't signed by the Flames but some, say Primeau's, were and cost the Flames not only for the present but future.
So if we got to decide which was the worst contract between one that Flames could have shed at any second for at least a decent package and another that the Flames had to move down in the draft to get rid of, how is it even debatable?