Quote:
Originally Posted by Parallex
IMO that is not correct...
Stajan
Smid
Engellend
Raymond
... those are all flat out bad contracts relative to what they provide. There are a few others that I would call slightly bad but not flat out bad.
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For me, to be a bad contract the player has to be overpaid significantly compared to what they bring, or be signed to a number of years that extend far beyond what most people would think would be a realistic playing career for that player.
Engelland is probably overpaid by 400k. He was signed as a number 5 defenseman. Look around the league and that really isn't out of whack with the cap hit of a 5 defenseman, especially one who managed to play in the top 4 last year and did a decent job. He is only signed 2 more years. That is hardly a bad contract. He isn't a value contract, but he really isn't significantly overpaid in any rational scenario.
Smid is likely done, from everything that I have read, so you can't say it is a good or bad contract because he can't play. If he doesn't come back this year he will probably be on IR for the remainder of his career. The cap number is high so it does have a small affect on the team's cap during the off season. However, it is still under 4 million and since the team can go over the cap by 10% in the off season, it really won't affect the ability of the team to do business. So it is an unfortunate situation because he can't play, but it is hardly a cap drag.
Stajan will probably be pushed out of the lineup within the next couple of years, but he isn't massively overpaid. You could argue this is a bad contract because he has three more years on it. He still has value to the team, and I personally don't think him much overpaid if at all, but this is the one you could argue is a bad contract.
So I'll give you Stajan. But otherwise Raymond is really the only obviously bad contract on the Flames roster. There are a few players —Engelland, Bouma, Frolik, Widema, Jones— that are not value contracts. These players are being paid market value, which means that they need to perform to their abilities to justify their cap numbers. That doesn't make them bad contracts, they just aren't team friendly. For the Flames, these contracts are more than mitigated by Brodie, Russell, Hudler, and the ECL contracts that the Flames have on their roster that generally balance out the cap.
It seems to me that some fans want every contract on the roster to be a value contract. This is great in a perfect world, but different situations make it impossible for any team to always get the best value. Whether it be signing players in free agency, trading for players that come with the contract they come with, or even through the negotiation process, the team isn't always going to win on value. Sometimes the player will win. But just because a contract isn't a value contract doesn't make it a bad contract. A bad contract is when a player cannot perform relative to the cap number and/or term of the contract. From that perspective, I really think Raymond and maybe Stajan stand out on the Flames, and both players are making less than 4 million dollars. The Flames have a good cap situation. What will determine their ability to keep their players are the contracts they give to Gio, Monahan, and Gaudreau. If they can get good value on those deals, they will be fine. If not, the band will not be together long. Bouma, Stajan, Engelland and the like are not going to make or break the Flames' cap, because you have to pay players to take their spot, and the difference between their number and the replacement number is not that significant. Not every position can be filled by and entry level contract.