When he does leave we can finally turn the page and move on from the Darryl Sutter chapter of Flames history, which can only be a positive thing. His presence is a constant reminder of the trade which epitomised a management style that hamstrung the franchise for years.
I get what you're saying and I do agree. But to be fair I'd like to point out that when he scored the go-ahead goal in the playoffs against the Canucks in that ridiculous comeback, we won the Phaneuf trade. Just saying.
__________________
So far, this is the oldest I've been.
The Following User Says Thank You to Traditional_Ale For This Useful Post:
Anyone who's seen my previous posting history should know how much I had defended Stajan over the years. I really can't defend this season he's had. He's simply been bad this year way more often than not. I'd say he's actually been even worse this year than he was throughout the 2010-11 season, especially since the year turned to 2016 he's been particularly dreadful.
Now with the expansion draft perhaps coming up next year, an argument can be made to keep Stajan and hope that he does better on this team next year. I wish I could say I'm hoping for that, but sadly, I don't know. This once fairly decent NHLer is looking done as an NHL calibre player and I fear this is pretty much all he's got left. I don't think even expansion teams will touch him at this point.
This is why I feel a buyout will have to be done with this player in June.
Not going to happen. Stajan will be helpful in helping the team reach the 25% of the salary cap that they need to expose for the expansion draft. Getting rid of him could force them to risk a player like Frolik or Backlund. If he's unclaimed next summer, I could see a buyout at that time.
That extra 3 million could be applied in any number of circumstances. For example, maybe Hudler wouldn't have come back for less than 5 million and Russel wanted 4 million. If we didn't have Stajan, that 3 million dollars could've been used to keep our good players (if that's something management wanted) rather than trading them for reasons stated by Treveling as "there's only so much dollars to go around". So yeah, every bad contract hurts irregardless. Stajan not being tradeable hurts simply due to the fact that it limits options.
In terms of Stajan "doing whatever is asked for him" I would disagree. Try asking him to win faceoffs, finish checks, and put up some points. He wouldn't do that. Are we really asking him to play the PK and 4th line, or is that all we have for him? There's a difference Monahan being asked to play the 4th line when he's capable of the 1st line, and "asking" Stajan to play the 4th line when really there is no other option.
The Flames didn't trade Hudler and Russel because they didn't have cap room. Just because you have cap room, doesn't mean you re-sign players for more than you should. Otherwise you are just repeating the problem that created Stajan's contract to begin with.
IMHO the Flames had ZERO interested in retaining Hudler no matter what the price. I think they'd love to have Russel back but only at an appropriate price.
Matt Stajan is a good guy, but he's exactly the type of player the Flames NEED to get rid of to get better. Way overpaid, his play this year has been significantly worse, and the need for his veteran presence is nearly diminished. Monahan will be entering his 4th year in the NHL and Gaudreau his 3rd. There's not too much more Stajan can teach them. It's time for guys like Stajan to go and for guys like Monahan and Gaudreau to step up and be the veteran leaders to the new younger guys like Bennett and whoever we draft this year. We still have a great veteran presence in Giordano, but Giordano is an elite defenseman in this league. Stajan isn't. I like the guy as a person, but I'd like to see him either bought out or traded this year. Thanks for your 5 years of service, but now it's time to move on. Our bottom six is terrible and he's part of the problem, not the solution. I can't believe that anyone would seriously want to keep him any longer.
Harltey re-purposed him as an experienced vet to centre the fourth line, does some PK with good experience that a vet has.
He fights hard but is definitely post apex as Feaster used to say. He's always coming up with the puck and then has a great shot on net that doesn't go anywhere. He is a pest most nights if you watch him in his role, because whatever skill set he currently has combined with his never quits attitude negates a lot of activity from other teams.
I agree, we can't sing his praises, but neither can we say he is bad. Which, after the initial trade I thought we had a terrible player.
Last edited by calgarywinning; 04-03-2016 at 07:52 PM.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to calgarywinning For This Useful Post:
Stajan centers the 4th line and kills penalties. Well, the Flames are 30th in PK and IMO, have one of the worst 4th lines in the NHL.
When your best quality is "being great in the dressing room" or "good guy" you likely don't belong in the NHL. The real star here is Stajans' agent. Only 2 more seasons.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Mister Yamoto For This Useful Post:
He's overpaid, but that is not his fault. He also lost a child who was maybe only a few weeks old. It changes you forever. The Flames organization knows this, and keeping him in the lineup shows the organization cares. 4th liners are plug and play. Give this thread a rest.
I still like the guy. Yeah he's overpaid. But he's way down on the list of things to deal with, to the point that I'm not a single bit concerned about him
Pinning GF/GA on Stajan when we clearly have a goaltending issue is not right. The stats do not depict this particular team.
Defenceman and fourth line stats with proper goaltending are significantly higher throughout the league. We've been missing a starter for sometime.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Yamoto
Stajan centers the 4th line and kills penalties. Well, the Flames are 30th in PK and IMO, have one of the worst 4th lines in the NHL.
When your best quality is "being great in the dressing room" or "good guy" you likely don't belong in the NHL. The real star here is Stajans' agent. Only 2 more seasons.
I actually think Stajan is the weak link on the 4th line - and yes, even when Bollig dresses.
Why?
He is constantly losing puck-battles, and his shot seems even weaker than normal (and he is constantly shooting the puck). He looks really slow now - he looks like he lost 2 steps this season so far. Bollig looks faster out there, and at least Bollig is throwing some hits and winning some puck battles in the corners - at least providing 'energy' as is expected of a 4th line. I just see everything dying on Stajan's stick, or he ends up shooting fresh from the oven muffins at the goalies, while I can't see him doing much else. I do think his back-checking and anticipation while playing defence is ok - he just isn't getting there as quickly any longer, and losing an ensuing puck battle more times than not when he does manage to get there.
In my opinion, he looks a lot like 2011-12 Stajan when he lost his job to Horak.
With that being said, what do you do? I doubt any team is going to trade for him. Buying him out doesn't make sense either. I am surprised he hasn't been scratched often.
With that being said, his contract is going to keep him on the team. Until the expansion draft rules become set, that 25% rule makes buying out or trading Stajan with a sweetener a bad idea.
It sounds like I hate Stajan. I don't. I think he is one of the more important guys in the locker room. However, I think the Flames hurt a bit losing McGrattan in the room, but they had enough strong vets to absorb that loss. Will they miss Stajan? I think so, but they can continue on fine I would imagine. Russell and Hudler were probably very missed as well. Giordano and Engelland I would imagine have a bigger impact, but this also allows for some of the younger guys to assert themselves and become part of the leadership group right now - Backlund, Monahan, Brodie, Gaudreau, etc. I feel bad for Stajan - I think this is the very end of his career, which is unfortunate since he seems like 'one of the good guys'.
It isn't the worst thing keeping him on the team - for as long as the expansion draft is looming somewhere on the horizon at least. What I think he should be is a healthy scratch more often. I didn't buy that Grant or Arnold or someone else could be called-up from the farm and replace his minutes, but I do believe that replacing him internally is actually quite realistic.
His game just dropped off a cliff this year. He just seems a whole lot weaker and slower this year.
The Following User Says Thank You to Calgary4LIfe For This Useful Post:
I can't agree with that. I think Stajan is often the best player on his line and forced into bad situations where he ends up taking a penalty because he has to cover for other guys losing the puck/making bad passes/not covering their guy. And he has to take low percentage shots because he has no one to pass to - they either are not up the ice, are not in position or have left for the line change.
Stajan was perfectly fine with other guys on his line, including this season.
I actually think Stajan is the weak link on the 4th line - and yes, even when Bollig dresses.
Why?
He is constantly losing puck-battles, and his shot seems even weaker than normal (and he is constantly shooting the puck). He looks really slow now - he looks like he lost 2 steps this season so far. Bollig looks faster out there, and at least Bollig is throwing some hits and winning some puck battles in the corners - at least providing 'energy' as is expected of a 4th line. I just see everything dying on Stajan's stick, or he ends up shooting fresh from the oven muffins at the goalies, while I can't see him doing much else. I do think his back-checking and anticipation while playing defence is ok - he just isn't getting there as quickly any longer, and losing an ensuing puck battle more times than not when he does manage to get there.
In my opinion, he looks a lot like 2011-12 Stajan when he lost his job to Horak.
With that being said, what do you do? I doubt any team is going to trade for him. Buying him out doesn't make sense either. I am surprised he hasn't been scratched often.
With that being said, his contract is going to keep him on the team. Until the expansion draft rules become set, that 25% rule makes buying out or trading Stajan with a sweetener a bad idea.
It sounds like I hate Stajan. I don't. I think he is one of the more important guys in the locker room. However, I think the Flames hurt a bit losing McGrattan in the room, but they had enough strong vets to absorb that loss. Will they miss Stajan? I think so, but they can continue on fine I would imagine. Russell and Hudler were probably very missed as well. Giordano and Engelland I would imagine have a bigger impact, but this also allows for some of the younger guys to assert themselves and become part of the leadership group right now - Backlund, Monahan, Brodie, Gaudreau, etc. I feel bad for Stajan - I think this is the very end of his career, which is unfortunate since he seems like 'one of the good guys'.
It isn't the worst thing keeping him on the team - for as long as the expansion draft is looming somewhere on the horizon at least. What I think he should be is a healthy scratch more often. I didn't buy that Grant or Arnold or someone else could be called-up from the farm and replace his minutes, but I do believe that replacing him internally is actually quite realistic.
His game just dropped off a cliff this year. He just seems a whole lot weaker and slower this year.
I agree with the vast majority of your post. The part I highlighted though is a minor quibble though.
I think Stajan this year looks a lot more like how he looked in 2010-11 than in 2011-12 (except a little worse and definitely slower now). I think Stajan looked clearly worse in 2010-11, which was the year he eventually got relegated to the 4th line near the end of the season under Brent Sutter than he did in 2011-12.
I'm also not sure whether it's a better idea to keep Stajan on the team for next year rather than buy him out in June regardless of the possible expansion draft looming and the need to retain 25% of team's salary for that given how bad he is now. That said, I think we're stuck with Stajan barring going the buyout route because nobody will be interested in taking Stajan unless we either throw in a massive sweetener along with him and/or maybe take back an UGLY contract, and neither of which does any good for this team.
It is sad though because Stajan seems like a truly good person, but it looks like declining skill and speed is really getting him to the point where he won't be able to recover to being the player that he used to be anymore.
