[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

The draft was great, and I would give it an A (I liked every pick except Jake Boltmann). But I think free agency was a disaster, and I would give it an F.

This year's free agency had only 4 contracts that were 4+ years long and were given to players over 30. 2 of them were by the Flames. Defensive defensemen almost never age well. Especially when the player has already regressed for 3 years.
Markstrom has a career 91% and had one pretty good season. He got 36 million dollars for an above-average 43 game stretch. Gaudreau is up soon. Tkachuk will need to be qualified at 9+ mill. All while the cap is still flat. With Giordano aging, the Flames pretty much have no offensive defensemen.

However, the main reason I think free agency was a failure is the loss in other opportunities.
Hall signed a reasonable 1 year deal. Barrie signed cheap. Brodie went for a reasonable price. Toffoli too. Hoffman and Dadonov as well (probably). Flames could have had good value on Haula, Grandlund, and others.

Also, Binnington, Anderssen and Grubaur might be UFAs next year. The 2022 free agency might be the strongest ever.

The Flames had over 100 points worth in players walk away. And they had about 20 points worth (Tanev) come in.

I think the Flames will make the playoffs this year. They might even have home ice in the playoffs. Tanev might be good for a year. Markstrom might be good for a few years.
But I'm not looking forward to having two more old guys on the roster in 3-6 years. I hope I'm wrong, but I am 95% sure I won't be. I've been right about almost every free agent signing since 2005 - I argued with many of you about the Brouwer and Neal signings. If I were a GM, I would never, under any circumstances, give long deals to players over 30.

Look on the bright side, at least this time he picked up his declining 2nd pairing defenseman without giving up a first and two seconds!