The point is Stone was a potential buyout candidate 1 year into his contract and the Flames had no space for Kulak because they had clogged up the lineup with a body who was worse than Kulak but paid 4 times as much.
And then to give him away because you didn't like that he asked for a bunch of money which turned about to be 10% of the buyout cap for stone, and that he now looks to be worth...
And then to trade a 4th round pick like 6 months later to get that depth back that you traded for peanuts.
It's just effing terrible roster throughput.
Imagine this is your Calendar year:
Sign kulak for 850k, trade him for nothing (the trade cost the flames about 100k in real cash), trade a middle pick for Fantenberg, buy out Stone.
So at this point you've moved Kulak, a 4th, a 3rd and a 5th to have a million dollar buyout against your cap for 2 years.
Valimaki's injury doesn't matter. Kent is completely correct in his article. Losing an above replacement level asset for nothing because you soured the relationship with him is terrible asset management and betrays a philosophical approach that is at odds with building a successful franchise over the long term.
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