Quote:
Originally Posted by dying4acup
I feel it's more imperative to shed Stajan. He's the only ugly contract on the books after next summer. Get rid of him, and the Flames could be a HUGE player in FA next summer. Assuming Elliot, Bennett and this years RFAs are locked up, the Flames could have upward of 10M to spend on one star player to fill a hole and gear up for a cup run.
I'm ok with stop gaps for 1 more year (goaltending aside), if it means adding a prime caliber top level player to this core after expansion is done. Give this year 1 more year to grow and mature, see who your key components are, who you lose to expansion, then push all your chips in, open the cup window and go all in.
To be clear, the goal is still to outperform the 2014-15 Flames, but don't go for 2nd tier Free Agents this year (Lucic, Okposo), but instead go for a Stamkos level player in a year.
|
Here's the thing. Yeah, it would be nice to shed Stajan. Problem is how to get rid of him from the entire organization right now. Not going to be easy to say the least. I think they're better off trying to get rid of him next year or next offseason because:
1) It's unlikely you can trade him at all right now because of his contract and what he is as a player means he won't likely be able to outperform or perform to that contract, and other teams may be fully aware of that.
and
2) The only way you can realistically get rid of right now would be to buy him out. Is is worth it to buy Stajan out right now, dyingforacup?? Keep in mind if the Flames were to buy him out now, they're stuck with his buyout cap penalty for 4 more years. Is that worth it????
I think that they should keep him this season so they can expose him to the expansion draft. And if he doesn't get picked up there, they can buy him out at the end of next June instead.