Yeah, cash was a big factor. Flames were top 3 or 4 in salary in 1989, and most of that carried over to 1990. The house cleaning then was too severe after losing to the Kings to shed salary and expenses, and it made Fletcher bolt for TO the next year.
Gilmour on his way out was not a shock, either the papers or talk radio at the time were on about it for a few weeks because he wanted 1m$ a year, a big raise. I was at the NYE game where he got a star (1st?) and recall thinking if this was the last time we had seen him..it was. He wanted huge money for one reason or another. I also heard a few things in the years after that time, that he was not doing any favours to the Flames executives with his off ice behavioir around town.
Verbeek would've been intriguing but he was a sour puss wherever he went too, so not sure if his performance would've been as expected. The trade was hung on Leeman having a 50 goal season two years prior, and trending to about 140 goals over the past 3 seasons.
Recall hearing about the trade on the way to Banff for a short family holiday. Peter Maher was putting a pretty good spin on it Iirc.
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