[Signing] Dallas signs Wyatt Johnston (5 yrs, $8.4 mil AAV)

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Groot

Wolf's comparables are out there and its Swayman, Saros, Sorokin, not Johnston. Wolf should be at $8 per.

Johnston is a 0.95 PPG right shot C who's 21-years old. If anything it puts Zary and Coronato $7 or less.

The Flames will not have cap trouble for the foreseeable future.

I was talking about term sorry.

No one said the Flames have cap trouble.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

It's really not a big issue for them. Benn comes off the books along with Dadonov, Duchene and Granlund. Seguin may be destined for LTIR at some point too again if he can't finally get healthy for good.

That's ~20M that will be replaced by cheaper young talent the Stars always seem to be full of. They'll also likely attract a bargain bin UFA signing to balance it out.

I do not think you are looking at the same data as I am. On capwages $5.3M in cap space for next year accounts for all of the UFAs not being on the books (Benn, Granlund, Duchene, Dadonov, Blackwell, Ceci, Smith and a couple of people in the minors). However, it also assigns zero value to unsigned RFAs like Bourque and Lundkvist (and 5 others).

With Rantanen's $12M on the books and now Johnston's extension they are now sitting at $90M already allocated for next season.

So at this point, they need to retain their 7 unsigned RFAs and get from 7 NHL forwards to 12-14 with only $5.3M in space.

That most likely means they need to shed salary from their D. If they can ship out Lyubushkin and/or Dumba and replace them with cheap prospects then that would free up some space to try to get to 4 lines of forwards. Or they need to trade Seguin (with his full NMC).

If you offer Bourque somewhere between $2.3-$4.5M, the Stars likely cannot match and it only costs a 2nd. If they do match, they are in cap hell and need to offload someone else before the start of the season.

I do not know anything about Bourque but he is a RHS C and was drafted in the 2020 1st round (30 OA), which doesn't really give "potential 1st line C" vibes, but does put a good young player into the depth chart in a position that we need for low cost.

Lundkvist may also be an offer sheet target if someone thinks a Broberg offer is worth it (currently at $1.25M).

[Paulie Walnuts]

The Flames have enough of those players. The last thing we need to do is spend picks and cap space on more of them.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

The Flames have enough of those players. The last thing we need to do is spend picks and cap space on more of them.

Enough of RHS centres? If so, an unsigned Lipinski is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Enough of RHS centres? If so, an unsigned Lipinski is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Middle 6 guys. Zary is playing on the 4th line.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Middle 6 guys. Zary is playing on the 4th line.

Interesting. So you watched him closely and have a good read on what his ceiling is? Just kidding. I get that your preference is the mystery box instead of the boat.

I have never specifically watched Bourque play but I have seen his name pop up here over the last year whenever a trade rumour with the Stars gets going.

Pros to an offer sheet:
- 1st round draft pick
- 23 years old - Ready to join the roster now
- RHS C
- Had a couple of good development seasons in the AHL (20g and 24g)
- He made it onto a very stacked NHL roster
- Potentially could be a #1B or 2A C ceiling???? (maybe a prospect authority like @Sandman has a better grasp on that)
- Low acquisition cost through the offer sheet

Cons to an offer sheet:
- Could cost a 2nd round pick in 2026. (That 2nd round pick could potentially be a #1C or more likely would like never be as good as Bourque and would take 5 years to develop to where Bourque is today.)
- Stars might be pissed at you and not want to play nice in future trades.

*shrug* I think loading up on prospects like Bourque is as good as loading up on draft picks. If he doesn't work out then you have an expensive Rooney replacement on the 4th line and if he does work out then maybe Zary, Frost and Bourque give you a nice core of young centres that Kadri and Backlund can pass the torch to.

[Jay Random]

The big con to an offer sheet is that players don't have to sign them, and seldom do.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Wolven

Interesting. So you watched him closely and have a good read on what his ceiling is? Just kidding. I get that your preference is the mystery box instead of the boat.

I have never specifically watched Bourque play but I have seen his name pop up here over the last year whenever a trade rumour with the Stars gets going.

Pros to an offer sheet:
- 1st round draft pick
- 23 years old - Ready to join the roster now
- RHS C
- Had a couple of good development seasons in the AHL (20g and 24g)
- He made it onto a very stacked NHL roster
- Potentially could be a #1B or 2A C ceiling???? (maybe a prospect authority like @Sandman has a better grasp on that)
- Low acquisition cost through the offer sheet

Cons to an offer sheet:
- Could cost a 2nd round pick in 2026. (That 2nd round pick could potentially be a #1C or more likely would like never be as good as Bourque and would take 5 years to develop to where Bourque is today.)
- Stars might be pissed at you and not want to play nice in future trades.

*shrug* I think loading up on prospects like Bourque is as good as loading up on draft picks. If he doesn't work out then you have an expensive Rooney replacement on the 4th line and if he does work out then maybe Zary, Frost and Bourque give you a nice core of young centres that Kadri and Backlund can pass the torch to.

We need to develop our own players. Guys like Zary, Coronato and even Frost need to play consistently in the top 6 to show more. And when they do get the chance they do shown up. We also have Sharangovich, Kadri and Huberdeau. Add Farabee into the mix. Where are they all going to get the proper ice time?

He’s 23 I wouldn’t consider him a prospect anymore and playing in the NHL. It’s not a slight against the player either. Also having an expensive Rooney replacement isn’t good use of cap space when the team has zero legitimate top line star players.

We need elite first line players and I don’t see it in this player and I don’t see how we can find the proper ice time to get the most out of everyone.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

We need to develop our own players. Guys like Zary, Coronato and even Frost need to play consistently in the top 6 to show more. And when they do get the chance they do shown up. We also have Sharangovich, Kadri and Huberdeau. Add Farabee into the mix. Where are they all going to get the proper ice time?

He’s 23 I wouldn’t consider him a prospect anymore and playing in the NHL. It’s not a slight against the player either. Also having an expensive Rooney replacement isn’t good use of cap space when the team has zero legitimate top line star players.

We need elite first line players and I don’t see it in this player and I don’t see how we can find the proper ice time to get the most out of everyone.

Overall I agree. It is the same argument I would make about not piling up a bunch of draft picks outside of the 1st round of the draft. At this point in the game we need to consolidate good/average assets into an excellent asset.

Bourque is in his rookie campaign right now and an offer sheet could be a low risk - high reward type move. It would cost a 2nd round pick and a little bit of cap space that we are not really using anyway to see if he can hit his ceiling instead of his floor.

Where would he fit? I would try him on a 3A line splitting duty with Zary. They could each focus on playing C on their strong side.
Huberdeau - Kadri - Coronato
Farabee - Frost - Pospisil
Sharangovich - Zary - Bourque / Zary - Bourque - Sharangovich
Coleman - Backlund - Lomberg

If it doesn't work out, Bourque could become a good trade piece to send out and try to get the thing we need. If it does work out and he demonstrates that he deserves a bigger role then you start to have hard conversations about how to make room for that to happen.

Originally Posted by Jay Random

The big con to an offer sheet is that players don't have to sign them, and seldom do.

Fair enough. Bourque is probably going to get a $1.2M offer from the Stars, maybe he can demand $2.1M based on what Steel is making. I doubt they can fit a significant raise for him while Seguin is on the roster.

The Flames could offer him $3M and he would need to decide if he would rather take smaller money to play on a contender or more money to join a retool.

Not a big deal if it doesn't happen but it could be an interesting opportunity to take advantage of the cap craziness going on over in Dallas.