[Signing] Florida signs Carter Verhaeghe (8 Years x 7M AAV)

[Monahammer]

What general consensus? I remember a ton of open speculation and many pundits unsure that Huberdeau would fit in (especially under sutter.)
I'm having trouble finding many articles at all about it tbh. The reddit threads are super mixed bag.

The two players most responsible for winning the division had just left the team. I don't know how anyone can reasonably say they were certain the team was still competitive. Certainly in retrospect we know they weren't at all. But even at the time it seems like a totally moronic leap in logic. You have your two biggest inputs now turn into question marks? Its not going work.

[Enoch Root]

You're debating whether they [i]should[/] have still been competing. That is not the point. The point was - when they signed Kadri, they were competing. Rightly or wrongly.

[Geeoff]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

You're debating whether they [i]should[/] have still been competing. That is not the point. The point was - when they signed Kadri, they were competing. Rightly or wrongly.

This set of transactions from giving up a 1st to dump Monahan was just Brad going all in because he knew he was leaving town

[SeanCharles]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

We're being pedantic here, but ultimately I disagree. The Window was known when the team played. Inarguably, the team lost its two best players. At that point, in my opinion, no one knew what the window was. Flames management guessed the window was still competitive, but they were proven wrong pretty quickly. The decision point for Calgary was in the middle of that, but they couldn't have known that the team was competitive.

Age wise, I agree, the team was old. And had just become substantially older by subbing out Johnny, Monahan, and Tkachuk for Huberdeau, Weegar, and Kadri. But the window can't only be based on the age of players. But there was no window... the players that gave us a window left prior to us signing Kadri.

It was absolute insanity to hand out some of the biggest contracts in franchise history to 29+ year old's who had never played a single game for the organization. Especially after playing hardball with the young star RFA's.

I was one of the few who wasn't pleased from the start. I thought we should have flipped Huberdeau for younger players - maybe to Carolina or Montreal, signed Weegar and not done the Kadri/Monahan thing.

Seemed like a huge gamble but it is over now and I am quite excited we have finally committed to a rebuild and like a lot of the youth we have coming/already here in Zary, Pospisil, Wolf, Coronato, Honzek, Parekh, Suniev, Klapka, Brz, Gridin, Basha, Battaglia, Misa, Mews and Grushnikov. This has to be one of the fullest the cupboards have been. Add 1-2 legit C prospects to this group and we are laughing.

If that disaster needed to happen for us to finally commit to a rebuild, I guess it was a good thing.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Even if by the end of this deal it will be viewed as $5 million today, how effective is he going to be in the last four years of the deal at the age of 36-40 years old making $5 million per season? Flames are paying Backlund $4.5 for the next two seasons but that only takes him to 37. How would you feel about him taking up $5 million of the Flames annual cap space from 37-40 years old? It's a good contract but nowhere near a steal IMO.

Verhaege is 29 and this deal starts when he is 30. No different from Huberdeau's deal, takes him to 38. It may suck the last couple of years but the it isn't buyout proof and like said should be less by then relative to the cap.

He's one of the best playoff contributors around. Seems like a great deal all around.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by SeanCharles

It was absolute insanity to hand out some of the biggest contracts in franchise history to 29+ year old's who had never played a single game.

We can only hope that this will be a hard lesson for ownership to step the eff back, especially when acting emotionally rather than rationally.