Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
With the cap going up and including stone in the deal we can easily afford schenn for the next two years and still sign tkachuk. That's one of the main benefits of doing something for schenn.
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No, we can't. I always laugh when I see people say, "but the cap is going up," thinking that will solve all problems. A small incremental increase in the cap does not address the long term need, not when you're seeing players salaries continue to outpace growth in the cap. You have to look at the whole budget and what demands players are going to have over the next two to five years. So what does that look like? Who's up for a new contract?
2019-2020 has Tkachuk, Bennett, Lomberg, Quine, Hathaway, Prout, Smith, and Rittich all needing new contracts. Not all of them will likely be brought back, but at least three of them will, and all three will get paid, increasing the salary structure substantially. Those other players will likely have to be replaced, especially Smith, and that is going to cost some coin.
So the likely scenario here is a salary structure like this.
Gaudreau ($6.75M) - Monahan ($6.35M) - Lindholm ($4.85M)
Tkachuk ($6.75M) - Backlund ($5.35M) - Neal ($5.75M)
Bennett ($3.0M) - Jankowski ($1.675M) - Frolik ($4.3M)
Dube ($779K) - Ryan ($3.125M) - Czarnik ($1.25M)
Giordano ($6.75M) - Brodie ($4.65M)
Hanafin ($4.95M) - Hamonic ($3.86M)
Andersson ($756K) - Kylington ($731K)
Valimaki ($895K) Stone ($3.5M)
Goaltenders ($5M)
In this model, no extra forward was taken into consideration, but Stone was maintained to capture costs of the extra forward and extra defender and maintaining a 22 man roster. That roster is conservatively priced out and it comes in at over $81M. That's if you get Tkachuk to stick to the Gaudreau/Giordano cap. I do not see how the Flames can add another expensive forward to the mix with any term on his salary. But if they did, what happens the following year?
2020-2021 looks to be a little easier on the team, or does it? Jankowski, Czarnik, Frolik, Brodie, Hamonic, Stone, Andersson, and Kylington all need new contracts. Flames can easily walk away from Czarnik, Frolik and Stone, but the rest are a lot tougher to deal with. The rest are going to need raises, and probably substantial raises, to keep the band together. It's not like some of these players are on the down slope of their careers and you are hoping to dump them. These are guys you would want to keep and will have to pay.
The Flames capologist has his work cut out for him, and it doesn't look like another big contract up front is going help keep the budget under control. If the Flames like Schenn, then you have to move one of Backlund or Neal out. There just isn't any more room for another big salary up front.
