I disagree with Steinberg. Engelland and Bouma are two of the biggest warriors on this team. Removing them reduces our physicality and toughness to an unacceptable level so their roles would have to be replaced by similar players. We have no defensemen in the system who have the snarl and bite of Engelland. He's our only really physical, defensive defensemen. Bouma I don't think is easily replaced on LW either. He's one of our best forecheckers, best penalty killers, best checkers, best shot blockers. I think he's a real identity player on those bottom two lines with his self sacrifice. He's not that much overpaid that we should be looking to move him. His poor numbers this year are due to injury, not poor play.
Wideman has to be moved IMO. His salary makes zero sense in our structure given that his role has basically been completely replaced by the much, much cheaper Nakladal. Same goes for Smid who can easily be replaced by Jokipakka, Wotherspoon or Kulak.
Stajan has also become completely redundant and overpaid as his role could easily be replaced by one or two of Grant, Hamilton, Shore or Arnold. Not sure how we'd get rid of him and we may need to keep him for the expansion draft.
Most important to keep on Steinberg's list? Engelland. His toughness on the blue line cannot be replaced from within and I think they like his leadership as well. He's played extremely well this year IMO.
Bouma I guess you could trade if another team wants to overpay for him but I'd prefer keeping him.
Wideman, Stajan and Smid are the 3 most overpaid players on this team for their role and all can be easily replaced by options within the Flames system. Raymond obviously has no role on the team but I'm not sure how you get rid of him.
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