Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkGio
That extra 3 million could be applied in any number of circumstances. For example, maybe Hudler wouldn't have come back for less than 5 million and Russel wanted 4 million. If we didn't have Stajan, that 3 million dollars could've been used to keep our good players (if that's something management wanted) rather than trading them for reasons stated by Treveling as "there's only so much dollars to go around". So yeah, every bad contract hurts irregardless. Stajan not being tradeable hurts simply due to the fact that it limits options.
In terms of Stajan "doing whatever is asked for him" I would disagree. Try asking him to win faceoffs, finish checks, and put up some points. He wouldn't do that. Are we really asking him to play the PK and 4th line, or is that all we have for him? There's a difference Monahan being asked to play the 4th line when he's capable of the 1st line, and "asking" Stajan to play the 4th line when really there is no other option.
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The Flames didn't trade Hudler and Russel because they didn't have cap room. Just because you have cap room, doesn't mean you re-sign players for more than you should. Otherwise you are just repeating the problem that created Stajan's contract to begin with.
IMHO the Flames had ZERO interested in retaining Hudler no matter what the price. I think they'd love to have Russel back but only at an appropriate price.