[Jason14h]

Originally Posted by Bourque's Twin

If the Flames buyout Brouwer after this season, next year this comes off the books (MM):
Backlund - $3.575
Brouwer - $3
Stajan - $3.125
Versteeg - $1.75
Jagr - $1
Jankowski - $0.925
Hathaway - $0.650
F. Hamilton - $0.6125
Kulak - $0.650
Bartkowski - $0.6125
Lack - $0.300
Raymond - $1.050
Rittich - $0.725
TOTAL = $17.975

Of the above, they should re-sign Backlund, Jankowski, Hathaway, Kulak, and Rittich. Then Lazar and 2 other forwards will make up the 4th line. Mangiapane and Klimchuk could make the jump. That should add about $1.7M to the cap. Tack on Bouma and Murphy's increases of $0.1375, and the Flames are left with roughly $16 million to sign those 5.

The cap is set to increase by $3 million to $7 million. The Flames would be smart to budget for $3 million. Now they have $19 million to work with.

Backlund gets $6, Hathaway gets $0.950, Jankowski gets $1.55, Rittich gets $1, and Kulak gets $1. Now the Flames have $8.5 million leftover. I don't think it's wise to use any of that, because the following year they need to re-sign Ferland, Bennett, and Tkachuk. Only Smith comes off the books and all that money should go towards a starting goalie. In my opinion, it would be unwise to trade for a re-signed Evander Kane or any other similar player because of the Flames current cap situation. In my eyes, this also makes it a no-brainer to buyout Brouwer either after this season or the next.

So the plan is to run with the exact same team for 2 more years ? The team that is 10th in the conference...