[Gaskal]

Pleasantly surprised at the deal, was expecting a wee bit north of 1m. So where does Byron fit on the Flames going forward?

I originally thought this may have been his final year with the Flames, but I'm not entirely sure now that I think it over. For him to be displaced, a rookie would have to bump him off the roster. It's a tougher task than it seems at first because Paulie is just too important on the PK and in 4v4 - I don't see any of the tweener wingers replacing that. So while he's being mentioned for being perpetually snakebit, Byron isn't being deployed as a scorer anyway.

He's not really an aged vet, either. He's 26, the same age as Backlund, so he could arguably stick around for a while and mesh with the youth of the team. But the biggest thing for keeping him is that he's pretty cheap in comparison to what he offers your team. Next offseason, I think a lot of people will be going "Well, thank goodness at least Paulie's still cheap" when the big 3 massive core contracts kick off.