Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
That's totally untrue. I'm not calling Stajan a good fourth line player because he makes too much money. I'm calling him a good fourth line player because that's what he is.
My point about salary is that, unless you are a budget team (the Flames aren't) or in cap trouble ( the Flames aren't), it's pretty irrelevant.
Flames have cap room to get a good top line player. Plus, if Monahan and Gaudreau play well, you just need a good player, not an elite one.
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I didn't say you were calling him a good 4th line player because he makes too much money.
I'm saying he's being compared against young players making a fraction of what he makes. He should be good based on that comparison.
The Flames don't have a ton of cap room. If Stajan and Brouwer were gone, they'd be able to bring in a better player to fill out the top line.
Stajan is what he is. An overpaid vet that is relegated to the 4th line because he's not good enough to play top 9 minutes. He could be replaced with a slightly lesser player at a fraction of his cost. That player may not be quite a good as Stajan, but the difference would be negligible, and the cap savings could be utililized to upgrade the top 9 forwards or perhaps the #5-6 d-men jobs.
At a $3.5M cap hit, he should be a competent 4th liner. But that doesn't make it a good thing from Calgary's perspective.
Vegas presumably found no takers for Stajan, so passed on him at the expansion draft. That tells me all I need to know about his value to a team in a cap world.
When his contract ends, he'll likely sign a contract for about $1M and be a properly allocated 4th line player.