[Red John]

Although Ricardo's inane ramblings are like the musings of a madman, there is one point he's made that is probably salient.

That's the fact that you can't have too many guys like Raymond on your team. He is a soft player that outside of his speed and ability to forecheck, doesn't bring much. However, it's important to have players on a team that bring different skillsets as it keeps you from getting predictable. Could you imagine 12 of the exact same forward on a team?

As a coach it would actually be easy to gameplan and shut that group down because every line would play the exact same way, make the same decisions with the puck, etc. The minute you are predictable you become easy to beat.

So although guys like Raymond, or Linden Vey in Vancouver for example, are easy to hate on, it's actually valuable to have them around as a chance of pace type that keeps your team versatile and slightly unpredictable.

On top of that, Raymond does have an offensive history with a 50-point season under his belt and is a streaky guy who could literally prop the Flames up offensively with one of his hot streaks at the right time. All it takes is 3-4 hot games and his offense could win you a playoff series when the rest of the team might be shut down or gone cold.

$3 million a year is basically the equivalent of like $1.7 million at the start of the salary cap era so you really aren't being hampered by the contract. It's like 3% of the team cap which is pretty reasonable for a 3rd line guy who can skate, forecheck, create chances with speed and move up to the 2nd line during a hot streak and get his points.