[MarkGio]

I really hope they're not standing still. The current season is unique and I hope the Flames take advantage of it rather than sit back and watch other teams improve. Here's how it is unique:

1) With the expansion draft, no teams are willing to take on contracts needing protection
2) Right now 27 teams are projected to have a cap hit within 5 million of the ceiling (ie, almost all teams are spending close to the cap)
3) Only 3 teams have essentially zero cap space this deadline
4) As of right now, all but four teams are within 6pts of a WC spot in their respective conference
5) The 2017 entry draft is weak, and the odds of receiving a good pick is not good (ie, most teams will part with picks)
5) Not many teams are shedding more than 13 million in UFA salary, the most being Arizona, Dallas, Calgary, San Jose, Toronto and Philly.

Due to the expansion draft, many teams are positioned to lose talent, creating more parity than ever next season. A lot of teams will not have cap flexibility next season, and not many teams will look to the draft to improve their club.

IMO, the Flames are in a good position. They could sell their UFAs with so few sellers to get picks that teams do not care about. They also have the flexibility to buy without having cap issues and protection issues.