Would You Re-sign Stajan?

[soulchoice]

Matt Stajan could easily be the next Matt Cullen in the league. For the right price, he is serviceable in much the same way Cullen has extended his own career. Albeit not with the Flames.

[Ozy_Flame]

Stajan would not be bad as a player advisor or even an assistant coach who gets brought into the fold by the Flames brass upon retirement. Matt is great in the locker room and well-liked in the organization. Having his leadership around after he's done playing would be valuable, he seems to get better deeper into the seasons, which is good karma to pass to the kids.

[CsInMyBlood]

Nope, shouldn't have ever been signed to that second ridiculous contract he got.

[GreenLantern2814]

Hell no. We've given that man $28M over the last eight years. That's enough.

[Toonage]

Let's be honest, he'd make a great assistant coach if only for his love of yelling at the refs.

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood

Nope, shouldn't have ever been signed to that second ridiculous contract he got.

It wasn’t an important contract at the time when he signed it. He signed it when we were rebuilding. It became a problem when Brouwer signed his. Having 7.5m combined on these two for two seasons has hurt us pretty bad.

[The Boy Wonder]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

Oh yes, you got me there. Pretty arrogant of you to be honest.

I’d suggest you look up how much Matt Stajan has done for the Flames and for all of the Calgary community in general.

Man... I don’t think he was attacking you or Matt Stajan... he made a joke. It was funny. This is clearly a joke thread.

[Jiggy_12]

1 year for cheap? Absolutely. There aren't exactly guys knocking down the door for 4th line C role. Always good to have depth too.

We're all sour about his contract but that's expiring and won't be an albatross anymore

[SuperMatt18]

This is where it's tough.

If I was GM/Coach and could control how he was played I absolutely would sign him as depth to be the 13/14th forward with the understanding he probably plays at most 15-20 games next season and is there to be a good veteran you can trust in case of injury and a locker room guy.

However as just a fan of the team I would say no.

Mostly because I feel like whoever the coach is (GG or otherwise) is then going to default to the veteran on the 4th line and we will see Stajan as our 4th line center for 82 games again next season ahead of somebody like Shore or Jankowski (think 3rd line center should be a focus of improvement for this team if possible).

[TheScorpion]

Certainly not. His time here is up, and while he's provided lots of nice memories over his nine years of service, he can be fairly easily replaced with a better, younger player. The only NHL FAs I'd look at bringing back up front are Jankowski, Shore, Versteeg, Klimchuk, Shinkaruk, Poirier, and Hrivik. Goodbye to Stajan, Hathaway, Glass, Gazdic, Carroll, Jagr, and Smith.

[albertGQ]

I wouldn't even give him a 1 year deal at league minimum at this point. We need to get younger and let some of our farm guys take a bottom 6 role.

[The Fonz]

No, that spot needs to be given to a younger guy with a chance at upward development.

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by Jacks

As a 12/13th guy making 1M for 1 year I'd consider it. He's still good enough to play a depth role, he's a centre who's decent at face offs.

Exactly what I was thinking. Well maybe more like $800,000. But a 13th guy who can eat popcorn and fill in for a few games a year instead of having a rookie waste his time in the press box.

I have been a big Stajan booster, but I wouldn't bring him back to fill an everyday role.

[GioforPM]

I'm as big a Matt Stajan defender as there is on this forum and I wouldn't do it. He plays great now FWIW, but it's taken a long time for him to get going. The only way would be if Shore craps out, you can't find anyone to play 4C.

I think he has plenty to offer as an assistant coach but even there he'd start from the very bottom - juniors/AHL. I'm not sure he's a front office guy, but who knows - I wouldn't have pegged Conroy as one either.

[kukkudo]

Shore or Janko should be able to fill that role. Another team can offer him a contract.

[Kolbe31]

I doubt he'll be back. Can't believe he lasted this long, but he's been good in his role. It was hard not to hate him at first since he was part of the Phaneuf return, which was obviously disappointing. But we'll always have game 6.

[Winsor_Pilates]

No Chance.
Having said that, he's had played decent lately and that shot block last night was awesome to see.

Going into retirement now would be a great way to end a long career with dignity and tons of respect for the person he is.

If he plays another year, he'll be whipping boy #1 and have to retire as a guys who stuggles to stay in the lineup and potentially ends up on waivers or in the minors.

[Flames1217]

I would bring him back at 1 mil. 13th forward though and slowly move him into a coaching role.

[Winsor_Pilates]

double post

[Since1984]

Originally Posted by ForeverFlameFan

The guy is close to 1,000 games, has played a huge part of that in the Flaming C.

We know that he isn’t worth 3m per year, but you cannot deny that he’s been a true warrior on this team and a key player in the bottom six. And i don’t ever recall him complaining about his playing time.

Would you re-sign the guy if he was willing to take a 1-2 year contract with only 33% of what he is making currently?