Even of OEL had 1.5 million per season retained, I would be hesitant to take him for free. In fact, I wouldn't even trade Lucic for OEL straight up. There's just so much term with OEL.
He's not that good, and he'd be playing into his late thirties.
Cap space is going to be extremely valuable. The Flames simply can't afford to take on bad contracts. They can't make any bad UFA signings. In order to do this, most players are going to have to come from within the organization. Re-sign RFAs to good deals. Tkachuk may need 9+ million while the cap is still flat. Mangiapane is due for a raise.
I think the best way to avoid contracts in general is to avoid giving money and term to older players, especially in free agency. No matter how tempting it may be. If they sign a free agent, the free agent should be young and elite. No more Brouwer and Neal types. Stay away from Wayne Simmonds and maybe even Markstrom. Luckily, most of this year's free agents are actually pretty young (29 or younger).
Toffoli and Granlund are 27. Haula, Hall, Krug, and Vatanen are 28. Hamonic, Muzzin and Brodie are 29.
That's pretty much the list. Markstrom and Holtby are 30. I wouldn't give them more than 4 years. Kuemper might be available via trade, be he expires after a year.
Please ignore Hoffman, Dadonov, Kovalchuk, Simmonds, Shattenkirk, and Holtby.
Unless they come extremely cheap, they're simply too risky during the flat cap era.
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