Not sure if this qualifies as exciting but I am very interested in seeing how Treliving shapes the roster over the next year.
The following players do not have contracts for 2016/17: Giordano, Hudler, Monahan, Gaudreau, Russell, Colborne. Their cap hit for upcoming season is $13.7 million
If you try to sign Johnny and Monahan to longer term deals that eat into their UFA years, I would imagine that is $5 million plus each.
So resigning that whole group is maybe $30 million, or more. That is $17 million of more cap space needed that the Flames don't have, even with guys like Jones coming off. So lots of storylines could unfold:
What if Hudler has a repeat of this season and Flames are solidly in the playoff hunt? Would be very hard to deal him at the deadline and equally hard to resign him at end of year.
I really like all the palyers in that group but it will requitre some fancy footwork to keep them all. Much less add to the group.
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