Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
Why?
Chicago is a lot closer to contending than the Flames are. Chicago isn’t going to want to tie up cap space with dead money.
|
Probably true. Teams like Chicago and San Jose should both be in the phase of starting to get better every year if they want to get some momentum behind their rebuilds. They won’t want to be retaining much salary long term for because they will have a multitude of young skilled players needing contracts in 2-3 years.
It’s interesting to think about which teams are entering or are as early into their rebuild Calgary is. I can think of teams that probably should be entering rebuilds but they aren’t. I struggle to see any that truly are earlier into their rebuild than Calgary is.
Calgary is still in the tear down phase of the rebuild. It could end up being a quick rebuild (for better or worse) since the flames have already stocked up some key positions with young players on defence and in goal. I don’t think it’s extreme to think that 2-3 years from now, most of the flames’ defence will be made up of young players already in the system. We’ll see how it all plays out but the flames future defence and starting goaltending seem already set. They are extremely thin on young skilled centres which are the hardest players to acquire. Those missing centres are what make me consider the flames very early in the rebuild and why I think I would be ok retaining salary on Kadri - but only if it makes him a valuable asset. A 5th round pick + Kampf is definitely not worth 4 years of salary retention. Just keep Kadri in that case.