[Signing] Flames re-sign Stone (3 yrs, $3.5 mil AAV)

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Mony

T...where is the room for kids to play now? We have an abundance of kids that look like they're trending great to fill those bottom D spots and now one of the spots is plugged. I get that people are afraid of playing kids but it has to happen at some point. 3 years blocks that for a sizeable chunk of time. One year would've been fine. But 3?...

Seriously, look at this. Everyone who is upset about how hard done by the Flames' poor defensive prospects are needs to look at this:

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Andersson (24)
Kylington (23)
Valimaki (21)
Fox (22)

That's how old our high end D prospects will be after 3 years.

Stone's contract is high for a #5 defensemen, and I personally would feel better if it were for two years instead of three. But he IS NOT "blocking" a promising young prospect from getting his shot at the NHL with this deal. There is plenty of time for these kids.

[FiveSeven]

Don't argue with a fool or it might be hard to tell who is who.

Fair market value. But only time will tell if he is over or underpaid, trying to prove that prematurely is pointless. We now arguably have one of the best defence lineups in the league. That's exciting as hell.

Sure you could of got a winger but Stone is still going to put up points too. And prevent goals against. We already scored at an above average clip so...and the majority of our players will most likely play as good or better than last season.

Nothing but positive things.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Yes. Absolutely

Agreed. Versteeg as well.

Brouwer, Raymond, Engellend & (Probably) Stone... not so much. He kills it in trades and mostly in RFA extensions (Bouma being the sole miss in that regard) but free agency strikes me as a weakness of his.

[Insane_Flame]

For me this signing is great for if nothing else he is tough as hell and is not afraid to defend his teammates, almost to a fault because he takes a few too many penalties. But this is a team guy all the way. He also replaces the toughness of Deryk, or at least we don't lose more. Give him a chance to start the year with the team and I think we will find he is even better than he was last year. I just have a really good feeling about this. If Harmanic is as injury prone and naysayers like to point out, this signing will be even more valuable.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Indeed we do... I just don't like "It's a bargain compared to X" arguments where "X" is of dubious value.

the dubious value is "UFA defenseman".

I won't say the Stone contract is a steal, bargain or whatever, I think it's fair market value for a 27 year old defenseman who has been playing 19-22 minutes per game most of his career and clearly stepped up after being traded to Calgary. It's a bit steep when you view him purely as a #5, but again, he's capable of playing more minutes if needed and in case of injury he's a great security blanket to have.

The Flames wouldn't have been able to find a better defenseman at a better price tomorrow, that's just not how July 1 works. They instead chose to pay the guy they like and are familiar with, and that makes a lot of sense to me.

[2ArmBands]

Sorry if this has been posted. But my analytics are as follows:

Stone > Russell

Russell Contract $ > Stone Contract $

Flames =

[timbit]

Not too many teams get younger faster and more skilled on D , while reducing Cap.

Treleving has accomplished that with the Hamonic trade and Stone signing.

Bravo!

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Nothing CHL wrote in that post deserves this response.

Perhaps misdirected at that one post, should have quoted a few different ones.

[Hockeyguy15]

I love how the wet blankets say "oh you can't compare this deal to other bad deals"

What? The market dictates what players get. Were you saying we can't compare Monahan and Gaudreau's deals to their comparables?

[GoJetsGo]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Interesting, because I don't remember saying that. You're putting words in my mouth. What I said was that he came in and the team won some games, and a bunch of people assumed that one was because of the other. Correlation implying causation, which happens all the time... and in fact, there were people saying precisely this in that thread. "Well, he came in and we started winning". So obviously that characterization of why many people liked him as a player wasn't unfair.

In fact, and I posted this earlier, Flamesnation even wrote an article about it that now appears downright prescient.

https://flamesnation.ca/2017/03/18/m...-being-better/

Yeah, because it's the usual tired old "watch the games", as if I don't have gamecenter and don't watch a borderline embarrassing amount of hockey, especially when I'm working late. So yeah, I saw quite a bit of Stone, including some in Arizona, so I wouldn't be surprised if I saw him more than you did last year. Which, if so, wouldn't in itself be a reason to think that my analysis of him was better or worse than yours.

I tend to actually have statistical evidence to back up my views. You might not like the evidence, you might want to discount it (which, go nuts), but your constant visceral anger at having someone disagree with you for actual empirically based reasons is kind of revealing. It's every thread with you doing this foaming at the mouth routine.

Says the guy who wanders into every thread with smug arrogance that his opinions are factual.

It would be one thing if you worded your posts that way, but they're almost always reeking of you being the smartest guy in the room due to the stats you spew.

I find you as biased and tiresome as find me detestable.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Just to reiterate (for Corsi and friends), WE'RE SPENDING LESS ON DEFENSE THIS YEAR!

[Stupid]

I like the signing. Looks like it was the best option out there. I can see this going either way (although I think it will work out nicely).

Very excited to see how we'll enter the season. I wonder if a kid can step up.

[Love]

Stone will be a trade chip in during the 2019 trade deadline. We'll use him to replenish picks and prospects while allowing room for one of our youngsters to step in.

Josh Manson got his cup of coffee in the league at 22 and Brandon Montour at 23. Oliver is only 20, Rasmus is 20, Juuso is 18, Fox is 19. No rush with these guys.

[Badgers Nose]

Wow, this is a heck of a defense!

I like that Stone will challenge Hamonic.

[Karl]

I like this.

[Da_Chief]

I'm going to lay this out for those opposed to this signing:

Injuries will happen therefore Andersson/Kylington etc will get a chance to come play but they won't be forced to play top 4. The remaining 4 of the top 5 will handle that.

Guluzten has this plan for his dman:

• 22-23 minutes for top 4 guys
• 18 minutes for 5th guy
• 12 minutes for the 6th guy

Bartowski will be the 7th dman imo. Kulak will be the 6th playing 12 minutes or so and getting ready.

It's not a 6-7 year crippling signing. Dollar amount is not bad for a UFA guy.

If you still hate it, remember the sun will still come up tomorrow and you're not signing off the checks.

[IamNotKenKing]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Sure, but pointing out a bad contract doesn't make a less bad contract good.

No, but if that is market value for a player of similar skill level, and we sign someone below that, then it does.

[PugnaciousIntern]

I'm not understanding why we would make this move when cheaper players like Grossman are available for so much less.

[Stanley]

Originally Posted by PugnaciousIntern

I'm not understanding why we would make this move when cheaper players like Grossman are available for so much less.

Because we're trying to ice a competitive team.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

...Flamesnation...

I just wanted to say that I think Flamesnation sucks.