[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Bend it like Bourgeois

That's true, though I think dealing with the expensive d beyond Russell has to happen either way. The flames need a 3-4 guy in Russell's spot and that player is going to make 4m ish.

I don't know if Russell is the right guy, but I hope the problem they solve is the 3 overpaid guys at the bottom.

I'll repost this again to show that Russell is too expensive.

Every dollar overpaid to one player has to come out of the budget elsewhere. You really need to see the numbers in action to get a better understanding of what a few dollars here and there means. Take a $70M budget as an example, which is a fair number to use considering the cap and the space you need for call-ups for injuries and such. I would think a healthy budget breakdown is going to look like $40M on forwards, $24M on defense, and $6M on goaltending. So something like this, taking names out the mix.

$7M-$7M-$5M
$3M-$5M-$3M
$2M-$3M-$2M
$1M-$1M-$1M
$.75M-$.75M

$7M-$5M
$4M-$3M
$2M-$1.5M
.75M

$5M
$1M

That projection actually comes out $70.75M, or just a hair over budget. When you start plugging names and numbers into the matrix you start to see how actual dollars and cutting corners here and there mean all the difference in the world. We'll look at the defense as the best example, because we are about to hit the crunch there immediately, and because the balance in the Flames forward lines is so completely messed up (Treliving has his work cut out for him).

Giordano ($4.0M), Hamilton ($5.75)
Wideman ($5.25M), Brodie ($4.65)
Engelland ($2.92M), Russell ($2.6M)
Wotherspoon ($.925M)

Total: $26.1M or $2.1 over budget. Now, try and work those numbers knowing that Giordano is asking $9M! You have to hope he'll come around and take that $7M number, but you are already paying Hamilton $.75M over budget for that pairing, so $6.25M is what you can really afford. On the 2nd pair you have to lose Wideman outright. You can't afford that salary, especially when Brodie is $.65M over what you hope to pay. So a defenseman to play with Brodie now has to be a $2.35M player. On the third pair you have to get rid of Engelland all together and replace him with a guy that is at a Wotherspoon level salary. Then you have to replace Wotherspoon with a guy that is cheaper yet. So to get to the numbers you think are going to be needed your budget on defense is going to look more like this.

Giordano ($7M), Hamilton ($5.75M)
Brodie ($4.65M), Player X ($2.25M)
Russell ($2.6M), Wotherspoon $(.925M)
Morrison ($.925M)

You are being forced to lose Wideman and Engelland, and bringing in a defenseman of a substantially lesser value on your second pair because of moving a few dollars to another guy. See, a couple hundred grand here and there makes a pretty substantial difference. So when you over-pay a guy like Bouma $300-500K, that means it has to come out of a player somewhere else, and can result in a much lesser player than maybe you had hoped to have in the lineup. This also shows the importance of always having cheap young talent rolling through the organization and keeping the upper level salaries in check.

To update this post a bit and show the accuracy of the premise, Giordano did sign for just under the $7M budget number, so almost balances out what Hamilton is being paid. They are still a shade over budget for their top pair. With Brodie on the 2nd pair as a budget number that means the dollars available are limited. When you add in Wideman's $5.25M and Engelland's $2.9M we are seriously screwed. Our salary structure is boo-foo and Treliving has to fix that before committing more dollars to players with diminishing skill sets like Russell. The best thing the Flames could do is to trade for some young guys that can play in the bottom four defenders that are going to be cheap or controllable over the foreseeable future. The budget demands it.