As good as they were in regular season, with an absolute perfect storm of things going well for the Flames from Vezina quality goaltending to lack of injuries (Monahan excluded) and not fighting Covid like other teams, the Flames still couldn’t compete with the big dogs with Gaudreau and Tkachuk making 13M.
Not sure why we would expect the Flames to have been contenders with them making 20M, especially when Lindholm gets his raise. Think fans were fooling themselves.
Once Gaudreau left, worst case scenario was signing Tkachuk and being a middle of the pack team again for 8 years.
So I’m not seeing a downside here.
If Flames sign them to fair contracts, great, new core to replace one that couldn’t win.
If Flames don’t sign them, either they suck by deadline and pick up assets and can (hopefully) start rebuilding properly.
If Flames are competing and keeping them but let them walk as UFA it once again “forces” the Flames to consider a rebuild. And then they have an extra 1st.
Could always sign Huberdeau to a contract and he immediately regresses but you can say that about anything or anyone.
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