Looking at Capfirendly, 18 of 32 teams have less than a 1M in cap space right now. 12 are in the red. Once Bouchard signs in Edmonton that gets bumped to 19 and 13. There isn't a lot of room right now to make trade as 2/3 of the league have painted themselves into a corner. Every GM knows this and that probably makes the prices higher as those ELC contracts are worth their weight in gold when the cap is flat.
Right now it is a game of chicken to see who blinks. Unfortunately for the Flames, they always seem to be unlucky in terms of timing. When they had cap space, they couldn't weaponize it back in 2013-14. One of the worst season the franchise had was probably one of the worst draft classes. Now, when they want to make moves, they really are one of the few people on the dance floor.
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