Quote:
Originally Posted by wooohooo
Is there a reason why we couldn't have just signed Nakaldal to the same contract instead of Grossman?
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Yes. Johnny Gaudreau.
Gaudreau signed after Nakladal signed with Carolina.
Flames were in talks with Nakladal in the off-season. They were very close to the cap while still waiting for Johnny to re-sign (given what they were thinking Gaudreau was going to eventually re-sign for). Carolina signed Nakladal on Oct 9. Gaudreau re-signed in Calgary on Oct 10.
Treliving wasn't able to sign (or re-sign) anyone around that time as it wasn't a sure thing that Gaudreau would have re-signed for the amount he did.
At that point, who else is out there that would be willing to sign for league minimum to help bring the Flames up to literally thousands of dollars short of the cap?
Also, some people seem to think that the Flames should have put Smid on LTIR before the season started so that the Flames had 3.5 million worth of cap room. That is not how LTIR works.
You can not put anyone on LTIR before you declare your roster. You have to set your roster, THEN Smid can be assigned to LTIR. Smid has to be on the opening roster before he can go on LTIR. That is why Grossman's contract was given and allowed the Flames to be as close as possible to the cap, so that when Smid goes to LTIR the Flames can claim the full amount of cap relief.
LTIR doesn't give you extra cap space. Smid's cap hit still counts. What LTIR does is the flexibility to use those dollars to replace Smid. You can't do that until AFTER the opening day rosters are set.
So for those claiming that signing Grossman was a stupid move, I can't think of any other players that the Flames could have signed that were smarter moves to help them get closer to the cap - as of October 10th when Gaudreau finally re-signed anyways. Nakladal was gone by then.