[News] Matt Stajan activated from IR; Corban Knight assigned to Adirondack

[Finger Cookin]

With a $69 million cap and $51 million floor, and a 23 man roster, the average NHL salary is ~$2.6M. Even if the cap stays flat for the remainder of Stajan's contract, it's hardly an exorbitant contract or an albatross. It's a good contract for this season and for the subsequent seasons. It comfortably slots him in as a #2 or #3 center on most teams, in terms of pay.

Whether we need him as a center for years 3 and 4 (or even year 2) of the contract is, to me, an entirely separate issue.

[Flames89]

Stajan is part of the reason our team has such a great attitude.

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

Jooris can play RW, Granlund will most likely be sent back down when Backlund returns, Bouma is a better winger than center, and Bennett hasn't even made the team yet. The only one in the names that you mentioned that is ahead of Stajan is Monahan.

Displace Granlund outpointing Stajan by a fair margin? Move Jooris to wing while excelling at centre? Bouma is one argument that's reasonable. How can those guys not be ahead of him when they are outproducing him? Backlund was doing better than Stajan. Asides from Corban Knight he's the lowest C on the stats chart.

[Street Pharmacist]

Granlund hadn't been very good for a few games now. I think he's going down

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by AcGold

Displace Granlund outpointing Stajan by a fair margin? Move Jooris to wing while excelling at centre? Bouma is one argument that's reasonable. How can those guys not be ahead of him when they are outproducing him? Backlund was doing better than Stajan. Asides from Corban Knight he's the lowest C on the stats chart.

Granlund may be outpointing Stajan, however, he isn't near as good defensively and good on the FO dot like Matt is (at least not yet). Maybe he'll stay playing LW or stay as center as we await for Backlund's return.

I do agree Jooris is better as center, but we could still use him on the wing if need be. Maybe he'll continue to be a center since we have Raymond and Colborne coming back.

[ricardodw]

Stajan was being paid 3.125M to as though he was going to be the Jarrett Stoll 3.25 M on the Flames,

Very comparable players skating and scoring , PK and even PP time..... The only thing is that Stoll plays a lot harder (twice as many hits) and wins a lot more face-offs than he loses and is the go to guy for important face-offs.

Stajan has not shown that he is good enough to be the #3 centre on a SC contender or even a 1st round playoff winner.

We were waiting 4 years for his last contract to run out and now we will be waiting another 4 years for this contract to run out. Stajan has the best agent in the league.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

With a $69 million cap and $51 million floor, and a 23 man roster, the average NHL salary is ~$2.6M. Even if the cap stays flat for the remainder of Stajan's contract, it's hardly an exorbitant contract or an albatross. It's a good contract for this season and for the subsequent seasons. It comfortably slots him in as a #2 or #3 center on most teams, in terms of pay.

Whether we need him as a center for years 3 and 4 (or even year 2) of the contract is, to me, an entirely separate issue.

If you break the cap down the top 6 forwards would be allocated 30M, the top 4 D 20M and #1 goalie 5M.

that leaves 14 M for the bottom 6 f 2 d and backup goalie. 14/9 leave you with around 1.5 M / player

Stajan is not a top 6 f on any NHL team.


Example:

LA top 6 F -32M
top 4 D 16.6M
#1 G 5.8M

Chicago

top 6 29.975 top 4 18.8 #1 G 6M

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

With a $69 million cap and $51 million floor, and a 23 man roster, the average NHL salary is ~$2.6M.

So it would seem obvious to me that you'd want the bottom half of your roster to have salaries below that number, not above it.

Stajan is playing the same kind of minutes as Bouma and Setoguchi, but making double the combined salary of those two.

[TheDebaser]

I'm glad we signed Stajan. He is a solid player. Look up north for the influence a player like Stajan can offer a team.

[GioforPM]

His contract is only over $3 million this and next year. After that it's 3 and 2.5.

It's similar to what Boyd Gordon makes.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Granlund hadn't been very good for a few games now. I think he's going down

He's been outstanding defensively. The offense has dried up with him though.

[Rick M.]

In section 3 of the article referenced below, Ryan Lambert makes the argument that Jooris' production will not last.

http://flamesnation.ca/2014/12/4/fiv...eep-on-rolling

I hope he's wrong. What do people think?

[saillias]

Ryan Lambert knows less about hockey than the ATB fangirl. I am disappointed in myself for clicking that link and reading some of his trash.

Edit: In case you're curious, this is what he does. He looks up corsi numbers and then uses those as the be-all end-all on how good players and teams are. Last year he smugly proclaimed Monahan should be sent down because corsi. and attacked the intelligence of anyone who disagreed. Just another guy in the same breed of mudcrutch but I am lled to believe that guy actually does some good work in tracking these stats, whereas Lambert as far as I can tell just takes numbers he finds and then draws conclusions on them. You will not find a single bit of content that suggests he watched a hockey game. It's just numbers = conclusions.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Itse

So it would seem obvious to me that you'd want the bottom half of your roster to have salaries below that number, not above it.

Stajan is playing the same kind of minutes as Bouma and Setoguchi, but making double the combined salary of those two.

Setoguchi is a winger on a "no risk" career resurrection contract and played only half of the games. Bouma is a 24 year old RFA winger. Not comparables at all.

Ability and spot on the roster don't always match salary. Status (rookie/RFA/UFA) make a huge difference. Your comparable is a 30 year old UFA centre.

[Finger Cookin]

Originally Posted by Itse

So it would seem obvious to me that you'd want the bottom half of your roster to have salaries below that number, not above it.

Stajan is playing the same kind of minutes as Bouma and Setoguchi, but making double the combined salary of those two.

We disagree on whether Stajan is a bottom half of the roster player. I view forwards as top-middle-bottom. Stajan fits in the middle IMO - which means I find a near average cap hit suitable. Even if Stajan starts the game on the fourth line, he's capable of moving up the lineup if someone else is struggling, and can be a contributor on both special teams or from a shortened bench.

[Tacoman]

Originally Posted by Rick M.

In section 3 of the article referenced below, Ryan Lambert makes the argument that Jooris' production will not last.

http://flamesnation.ca/2014/12/4/fiv...eep-on-rolling

I hope he's wrong. What do people think?

Will he get 20 goals this year? Very unlikely. Will he skate hard and contribute to the speed and energy that has been the key to our success? Without a doubt. I don't know why everyone is so caught up in analyzing shooting percentages and all of that with players like Jooris. We don't need him to be a big scorer. This team is built on tenacity, speed and activating the offense from the back end. The numbers all come from that. If it's not Jooris, it'll be one of our other forwards.

[Henry Fool]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

He's been outstanding defensively. The offense has dried up with him though.

I believe it's called the No Longer Playing with Hudler Effect.

They could send Granlund down for a bit or even have him sit a few games to let him catch his breath, but at the same time you don't want to react every time a rookie goes through a cold streak. It's important to learn to play through the highs and lows of the long NHL season. Not that this is a low moment for Granlund but he does seem to have slightly less jump than before.

Either way is fine.

[gvitaly]

I am glad to hear Stajan is back, and hopefully he will get into game shape rather quickly. I am a little surprised at the rose colored glasses regarding Stajan a little bit though. To get things into perspective the Flames had a 78.1% PK when Stajan was healthy, compared to 75.4% right now. He makes a difference on the PK and we only conceded 1 PPGA with him on the ice, but he won't make that big of a difference.

As for faceoffs, Stajan's stats are a little padded thanks to all his starts on the 4th line. If you take a look at when he was playing a shutdown center last year his faceoffs really suffered-
Nugent-Hopkins 44.2%
Towes 40%
Backstrom 57.7%
Thornton 46.2%
Crosby 20%
Sedin 63.6%
Datsyuk 29.4%
Tavares 27.3%
...
All the Figures taken from Faceoffs.net
There are examples that go both ways, but I don't think that Stajan can be relied upon as a faceoffs specialist consistently. A cherry picked example would be his short handed faceoffs percentage of 31.6% during this season. I do agree that he still is better than Granlund/Bouma in the faceoff circle by quite a margin. I just want him to start on the 4th line, get into game shape, and earn more responsibility... just like any other player.

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by Rick M.

In section 3 of the article referenced below, Ryan Lambert makes the argument that Jooris' production will not last.

http://flamesnation.ca/2014/12/4/fiv...eep-on-rolling

I hope he's wrong. What do people think?

Impossible if he's with Gaudreau and Hudler. The opposition over commits to the wingers and Jooris gets to float around in the slot. It'll be really tough for his production to completely fall off with the line he's on.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Rick M.

In section 3 of the article referenced below, Ryan Lambert makes the argument that Jooris' production will not last.

http://flamesnation.ca/2014/12/4/fiv...eep-on-rolling

I hope he's wrong. What do people think?

I dint think Jooris finishes with over 20 goals if that's what you're asking. He'll continue to be a good energy plate that chips in, but there's nothing in his history that suggests this will continue