Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
The Flames have to make a move for sure ... they have to clear some space.
But you don't honestly think the two sides are done on a deal and that's the hold up do you? This is a multi team vs multi player game of chicken with the Flames holding a pretty key player in the battle.
I'd imagine GMs think it vital not to be the second contract to emerge like the system breaking Matthews example.
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I think realistically all these values are pretty much locked in at this point and it's a factor of term defining the AAV.
I think Tkachuk's camp probably gave The Flames contracts they would accept in for 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8 year terms and it's up to the flames at this point to make space for whichever term gives them their desired AAV.
I think at this point Tkachuk's camp is starting to get antsy because there is a limited pool of cap dollars available that is dwindling by the day, so long terms with higher AAVs are getting harder and harder to sign.
More or Less I think Tkachuk has the Flames over a barrel. This is the first time they've been actually competitive since Treliving has arrived. For the ownership group it's the first competitive roster in close to 15 years, and tkachuk might be the difference between making the playoffs and not, so what do you do? Pay a bunch of money to buyout players just to let tkachuk hold out and not make the dance?
I think the Flames understand what it's going to cost to sign tkachuk at this point but they havne't been able to clear the necessary cap space to do so either because no one wants the players they are willing to move, or the flames don't want to give up players that teams actually want.
Specifically, I don't think the Flames want to retain enough salary on Frolik that would make him tradeable because it doesn't really help them hit term value for Tkachuk that they want.
I think the Flames want Tkachuk for Term and can't make enough space to get there and that is what is holding everything up.
The Flames can probably fit an 8.5x5 deal by retaining 1.5 million on Frolik, but they probably can't do a 10x7 deal that they really want without moving Frolik's entire cap hit. And I don't think anyone wants to take the full price on Frolik without a pick attached, which the flames ALSO don't want to have to do.
The Brouwer/Stone buyouts have eaten up the cap you could've used on Tkachuk, I'm sure there have been discussions between the GM and the owners about just how much cash they are going to have to spend to get Treliving out from under these mistakes. I don't think they want to pay 4.5 million dollars this year for 3 guys not to play for them.