I'm reconsidering a James Neal buy out as an option in light of some of the contracts that have been signed in the last month.
If the Flames had bought out Neal and Stone during the June buyout window, their combined amount that would count against Calgary's cap would be just under 3.1 per. That would save the Flames just under 6.2 per year in cap space this year.
Sure, the combined cap hits of Brouwer, Stone and Neal would be about 4.5 million for this year and next year, but you've partially plugged a leak and you didn't have to work anything out with anyone else and all it really costs you is cash and a bit of budget space.
But your opportunity to improve the team I think is greater while at the same time removing some distractions.
I dunno. With Neal the hope was maybe he'll be a goal scoring top 9 player, but adding Lucic is like actually committing to paying a 4th line guy 3-4 times more than he should be.
Now you've potentially made your chief rival stronger and only marginally, maybe, upgraded your situation.
It just stinks.
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