Calgary Flames: No Post Apex Plan (N-PAP)

[Leondros]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

They'll be handing out a lot of ELCs, and you aim for players that can step into the lineup immediately in the trading of your wingers and dmen that I mentioned.

More than half of our prospects are not physically big enough to play in the NHL yet.

[Vedder]

Originally Posted by Cali Flames Fan

I still say Cervenka deserves another 1 year deal to see if he can be an NHLer. He's got too much skill to just give up on, especially when we don't have a lot coming down the pipe.

Pass for me. The forward group is soft enough, and we will likely be adding Sven full time next year. We need to add some bigger forwards who can skate.

[StrykerSteve]

Originally Posted by Leondros

More than half of our prospects are not physically big enough to play in the NHL yet.

I'm not suggesting they are.

Just saying that there will quite a few more guys under contract next year that aren't right now.

[Stampede2TheCup]

Originally Posted by JazzyFlame

Feaster and his phrases, I'd rather he do his job.

But nice work!

Yeah I agree they're totally mutually exclusive. It's impossible to do the job of GM while using phrases like this!

[Shin Pad]

Ok - I don't spend a lot of time on these boards, as I'm very busy with work, but what is "Apex"??

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

how about Elias to play with the Czechs?

Yeo he'd be perfect. 1 year at 7 million; I don't think he'd turn down that sort of crazy offer.

[Hair bleach and Vodka]

Shin Pad, post apex players are players who have 'peaked' and past their prime.

[StrykerSteve]

Originally Posted by Shin Pad

Ok - I don't spend a lot of time on these boards, as I'm very busy with work, but what is "Apex"??

Past their prime.

[trackercowe]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

I like this plan a lot, minus one aspect. Signing UFAs means taking roster spots that you could be using for your youngsters. I don't want to see Baertschi playing on the 4th line again next season.

Agreed, just don't over do it. Say 2-3 players. Maybe even someone like Bryzgalov in net if Philly decides to buy them out.

I also say they should send out a memo to the other 29 managers saying they can offload bad contracts on us, possibly for the purpose of buying them out. Once again only short term deals (especially if the player remains on the team); but if those teams are willing to offer prospects/picks, then go for it.

I know Vancouver is the last team we want to help out, but what would they be willing to give us if we take Booth and/or Ballard? They need the cap room desperately, so situations like that is where we might be able to acquire a few easy pieces.

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

Feaster already said contracts for Brossoit and Granlund are close. Ramage will be offered as well. Hanowski will get his after frozen 4. Nothing bout Larson. so those should come and help the heat next year along with Wotherpsoon.

I was listening pretty closely to his interview with Steinberg today. I'm quite sure he was being purposely ambiguous in re: Ramage. Although he said they would sign Brossoit and Granlund, he didn't use that word for Ramage. He kept using ambiguous phrasing like 'it's on our list' and stuff like that but didn't use the sign word directly like he did for the others.

I suspect it's not looking good for Ramage.

[Nemisz/Breen]

Feaster, talks about talking to and signing Hanowski after the frozen four and then says and the same thing with Ramage. So to me it sounds as if they are interested in him.

[Travis Munroe]

I can't be the only one for keeping mcgrattam begin and Jackman as a cheap effective 4th line. They are beasts to deal with and have arguably been out best line since put together. As a bonus they don't take stupid 4th line penalties.

[Willi Plett]

Well there are still some holes to fill and we don't have a full roster of 20-26 year olds. 2 UFAs I think aren't post apex yet are Clarkson and Bozak. I'd target them. We need a couple more pieces to go with the young up n comers.

[Itse]

Assuming we keep Stempniak and Glencross, we should still add at least two gritty two-way forwards to fill out the top 9, and those will propably have to be UFA's. This is just so we can pretend to be an NHL team next season, and to give the kids some room to play, plus keep them healthy. Those guys will propably be veterans. This might seem counterintuitive, but IMO this is simply the way it is, since the issue has not been addressed before. One of those two should really be a center.

BTW; I hope Feaster is not too literal with his "no post-apex players", because young gritty solid two-way players will not be available in the UFA market. (Besides, this is a role that players often get better at with experience.)

Our top young forwards:
Backlund, Horak, Baertchi
Reinhart (might not be ready next year?)
Possible high 1st round draft pick
We would propably at this point be better off keeping Cervenka. Give him a chance to get into proper NHL shape, give him a one-year deal and a chance to showcase himself properly, and he should have some entertainment value to start the season and trade value at trade deadline.

Stajan, Cammalleri, Tanguay, Hudler. This is really the crux of our problem. Too many soft veterans. Stajan is okay, although it would make things much easier if we could replace him with a more physical player. However, he's not really the problem. Cammalleri, Tanguay and Hudler are. I think we can afford to keep one of them, two if we let Cervenka go. (But I'd rather trade two of these and keep Cervenka, because that should get us more resources for the future.)

I think Aliu has the potential to become an effective pest, so I'd keep him around, and McGrattan is fine in his role, which should be even more important next season, so keep him or upgrade for someone better.

Also, we will need a goalie with NHL experience next season, we can't just go with two rookies. That means MacDonald should propably stay. Plus if he ends up being the odd man out, he's easy to move. There will certainly be a taker for him in the waivers, and with luck he might even give us a low draft pick.

Bringing up Breen should help some in physicality, so we need only one more guy in defense on top of Brodie, Giordano, Wideman and Smith.

(Sarich is already too old and slow to play in the NHL, and will be even worse next season; the obligatory million dollar popcorn muncher. Buy him out or something. Feasters worst signing so far, total waste of money and a contract spot. Plus since Sarich was supposed to bring some physicality, that signing made one of our big weaknesses even worse by failing to address the issue.)

[devo22]

nice post, Da_Chief! One correction though: we don't have Chicago's 7th. We actually have Ottawa's 7th ... this one was previously acquired by Chicago in another trade.

Also, we either have our own 7th or Anaheim's 7th ... there was a condition in the Jaffray trade that we would swap 7ths this year. Don't know what the condition is.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Itse

Assuming we keep Stempniak and Glencross, we should still add at least two gritty two-way forwards to fill out the top 9, and those will propably have to be UFA's. This is just so we can pretend to be an NHL team next season, and to give the kids some room to play, plus keep them healthy. Those guys will propably be veterans. This might seem counterintuitive, but IMO this is simply the way it is, since the issue has not been addressed before. One of those two should really be a center.

BTW; I hope Feaster is not too literal with his "no post-apex players", because young gritty solid two-way players will not be available in the UFA market. (Besides, this is a role that players often get better at with experience.)

Our top young forwards:
Backlund, Horak, Baertchi
Reinhart (might not be ready next year?)
Possible high 1st round draft pick
We would propably at this point be better off keeping Cervenka. Give him a chance to get into proper NHL shape, give him a one-year deal and a chance to showcase himself properly, and he should have some entertainment value to start the season and trade value at trade deadline.

Stajan, Cammalleri, Tanguay, Hudler. This is really the crux of our problem. Too many soft veterans. Stajan is okay, although it would make things much easier if we could replace him with a more physical player. However, he's not really the problem. Cammalleri, Tanguay and Hudler are. I think we can afford to keep one of them, two if we let Cervenka go. (But I'd rather trade two of these and keep Cervenka, because that should get us more resources for the future.)

I think Aliu has the potential to become an effective pest, so I'd keep him around, and McGrattan is fine in his role, which should be even more important next season, so keep him or upgrade for someone better.

Also, we will need a goalie with NHL experience next season, we can't just go with two rookies. That means MacDonald should propably stay. Plus if he ends up being the odd man out, he's easy to move. There will certainly be a taker for him in the waivers, and with luck he might even give us a low draft pick.

Bringing up Breen should help some in physicality, so we need only one more guy in defense on top of Brodie, Giordano, Wideman and Smith.

(Sarich is already too old and slow to play in the NHL, and will be even worse next season; the obligatory million dollar popcorn muncher. Buy him out or something. Feasters worst signing so far, total waste of money and a contract spot. Plus since Sarich was supposed to bring some physicality, that signing made one of our big weaknesses even worse by failing to address the issue.)

McDonald is worse in net than Sarich is as depth D.

He has issues with his fundamentals. Why was he on his ass on the 6th Edmonton goal?

[taxbuster]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

McDonald is worse in net than Sarich is as depth D.

He has issues with his fundamentals. Why was he on his ass on the 6th Edmonton goal?

You'd be on your ass too, if you were playing a team that was smoking your guys as badly as the Oil was doing to the Flames....I think Joey Mac has at least earned the right to a further look-see.

[flambers]

Flames moves in the off season

Retirement;

Kipper

Following players will leave via UFA

Begin, McGratton, Bahchuk, Cervenka, Irving, Kolanos, Brett Carson

Resigning pending UFAs

Joey MacDonald (1 year extention if he will accept).

Cap Space

Flames will have a high amount of Flexibility, anticapte trades in the offseason with teams that have to shed salary.

[Poe969]

I think McGrattan has earned the right to be here. He seems to really like it here and he's good at his role. Not too many UFA's I'd keep other than him

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

I was listening pretty closely to his interview with Steinberg today. I'm quite sure he was being purposely ambiguous in re: Ramage. Although he said they would sign Brossoit and Granlund, he didn't use that word for Ramage. He kept using ambiguous phrasing like 'it's on our list' and stuff like that but didn't use the sign word directly like he did for the others.

I suspect it's not looking good for Ramage.

I got that vibe too. To be fair there is lots of time and he did say they will get to it. I just worry that more and more lately we've been seeing teams fawning over NCAA free agents, offering immediate playing time to burn a year of ELC and the players picking their teams. If I'm a senior drafted by a team I'm not crazy about I would seriously consider waiting until August then playing the field. I suspect we will see this more in the future, hopefully not in this case.