Quote:
Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef
That said if Keenan was still here I don't think they would have needed to trade Phaneuf.
|
Not really. The day Bouwmeester was signed, a lot of us questioned the ability to keep both Bouwmeester and Phaneuf given their respective cap hits. Most of us speculated that there must be another move planned because the Flames were trying to win the Cup that season and the team lacked scoring depth. But if you weren't trading Phaneuf there weren't too many options left. Besides Langkow who was coming off a bad season but was still a 2nd line center, there really wasn't anyone who was overpaid. Regehr was still a prime shutdown defenseman at a great cap hit, Jokinen was just acquired, Kipper was still an elite goalie, and Sarich looked capable of being the team's #4 and his cap hit was a reasonable $3.6M. Not to mention the NMCs that those guys had.
Unfortunately, we hired the wrong coach and there was a rush to win the Cup. Otherwise, the team could have kept both and would have secured the team's defensive future for years and wait until 11-12 to have the cap room to fill out the team or trade Phaneuf for a package that involved some futures.