Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkGio
I feel the Flames are going to sell Wideman, Bollig, and maybe Smid and Raymond next season, allowing the Flames to compete for the playoffs in the 2017-18 playoffs. Bennett, Monahan and Hamilton should be better, while some of those prospects are finally starting to crack the line up.
This gives the Flames another season to figure out goaltending, have some RW scorers in the line-up, and finally start putting it together.
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And which teams exactly would be willing to pick up those 4?
Bollig: dime a dozen grinder that can be found easily via UFA or your own prospect pool. Maybe you could pawn him off somewhere for future consideration, but still very unlikely.
Wideman: you'd have to take back another teams bad contract in return. A poor defensive defenseman who's coming off a poor offensive showing and who's coming off a lengthy suspension isn't going to attract anyone. A buyout will cost 2 million for 2 more seasons so you might as well just keep him, hope he gets close to last years level, and then have 5.25 million come off the books after next season.
Smid: same as Wideman with regards to buyout. Smarter to just keep him for one more season then stretch it out over 2. Also, despite not earning his current salary he's been a steady, stay at home #6/7 this year. But he does have a cap hit of 3.5 million and it's going to be really hard to find a trade partner. We also have no slam dunk D prospects ready to graduate full time next year.
Raymond: just not an NHL player anymore. No GM is going to be interested in him. Would be worth buying him out, I highly suspect that's what will happen in the summer.