Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
The team does have a lot of deals coming up that summer.
Lindholm, Hanifin, Tanev, Toffoli, Backlund, Zadorov, Dube, Kylington so I do think they can make the money work if they move on from most of those deals. I just am not sure if makes sense to sign another older player to that type of money when they already are locked in long term to Huberdeau, Kadri, Weegar and still have 3 more years with Markstrom who is about to turn 33 and 4 more with Coleman who is 31
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Making the money work by letting good players leave does not make the team better.
But the Flames have already charted their course. They will live or die with Hubby, Weegar and Kadri.If the core is not going to work (and that ship isn't close to sailing yet, notwithstanding the angst on this board), the Flames are left with little alternatives. If Hubby isn't that great, his contract is going nowhere. Same for Kadri and Weegar. If Lindholm requires $8.5M, sure they could fit it in, but doing do by simply removing Hanafin from the roster isn't working for the Flames.
So, the current core needs to be given every opportunity to improve because there really isn't any alternative. Saying the current version of Vladar may be better than the current version of Marky may be true, but the Flames are going no where if Vladar is their #1 goalie. They are giving Marky every chance to right the ship because they simply have no choice.
In a cap world, teams with an expensive core of mostly middle aged players are running with those players, good or bad. And in my terms, middle aged players are those who have reached UFA status and the contracts that go with that right.