Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
The Flames could have offered him this deal weeks, heck months, ago.
The fact it comes after free agent frenzy and the Flames let Byron reach UFA indicates that he wasn't a top priority to make sure to keep around. I think there's far greater evidence that the Flames reassessed the team after free agent frenzy and decided that there was room for Byron than they decided not to qualify him because of the scary arbitration. Both are speculation, one makes much more sense.
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Byron, a serviceable utility player, on a near-league-minimum contract is a much greater asset than if he had been awarded a contract of, say, $850,000-1,000,000. It's not that they were 'scared' of arbitration. They're just being savvy & getting the player at the best value they can.