Article: Season Ticket Holder Meeting Notes and Info

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja

Oh god. I really, really, REALLY hope we don't get Lecaviler and his anchor of a contract. Would Drouin truly be worth it?

Or MacKinnon. You never know how the top three play out.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by Imported_Aussie

I think the comments re: Backlund should also be taken with a grain of salt, as they have to negotiate a contract, and if they are overly effusive in praise, he will demand more

I agree with this I think Feaster is letting him know he has to keep pushing his foot on the pedal, if I recall correctly Hartley mentioned he was teaching Backlund how to become a better player.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Or MacKinnon. You never know how the top three play out.

No chance he makes it past Florida. If we were to get Tampa's 3rd then it would be either between Drouin or Bakrov and it's pretty obvious who we should take (Bakrov fills a need we have had forever but Drouin is the BPA so you have to take him).

[Ring of Fire]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Tampa has less than $3.5M in cap space with 17 players signed. They are in a bit of trouble

They won't even have enough cap space to put a top-3 pick into the line-up next year as with bonuses top-3 picks are around $3.75 million cap hit. Tampa will for sure need to move money or buy someone out.

[Cole436]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

Tanguay and the 6th for Vinny and the 3rd? Would people here do that?

Can't image they would want Tanguay as he was awful the first time he was there. But Vinny has 45M left to be paid and a horrid cap hit to go with it.

What about the Blues pick and the Pens pick for Vinny and the 3rd? That cap hit is TERRIBLE, so it should cost them a lot to get rid of it.

After reading through the cap penalties thread, I don't want any part of Lecavalier's contract. We're paying 4-7 million dollars in dead cap space if he retires near the end of his contract.

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by Cole436

After reading through the cap penalties thread, I don't want any part of Lecavalier's contract. We're paying 4-7 million dollars in dead cap space if he retires near the end of his contract.

I think if it gets you a top 3 pick you do it.

[Bar-Down]

Ya id do it if we dont have to get rid of our 6th.

Somehow keeping our 6th pick and getting the 3rd and Vinny I'd be okay with. That contract is horrid so it would have to be worthwhile.

Draft Drouin and Monahan would be a dream. Top Winger and Center in one draft.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Ring of Fire

They won't even have enough cap space to put a top-3 pick into the line-up next year as with bonuses top-3 picks are around $3.75 million cap hit. Tampa will for sure need to move money or buy someone out.

Bonus dollars don't really count against the cap (they do, but you get cap cushion to cover the bonuses, so it cancels out), so they only need to have room for his guaranteed money, which will be less than $1M (I don't know what the rookie-max will be next year, but it was $925,000 this season).

[kyuss275]

Glad to hear that Feaster does not like the UFA route this year. I still think his buy out route is going to have flaws. Don't see teams buying out players in the age bracket that Feaster wants. Also some of the high priced buy out players are going to get a lot of money and will probably rather sign a one year deal on the cheap side, with teams that have a chance at the playoffs. The cap is probably going to go up for the 2014 -15 season.

I would not worry about Feaster getting Vinny's contract. He still has a NMC and probably would not waive to come to Calgary. I could see him saying "if you don't want me, then buy me out".

[browna]

Can teams trade away a player, have that team use an amnesty buyout, and then original team then re sign the guy?

The Flames get Lecavalier and the third pick for Flames garbage that they would be buying out plus say the 22nd pick. Flames promptly buy him out, and Tampa resigns him.
Costs the Flames owners a ton of real money for the buyout, but no cap space and they shed some space of their own. With the new rules, Tampa can trade some of that cap space as well as part of the deal if they wanted.

Obviously highly unlikely, but the Flames could do Tampa a favour getting them out from that contract, but Tampa keeps him in the end, and in turn the Flames basically buy the 3rd overall pick, and use up one of their buyouts.

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by browna

Can teams trade away a player, have that team use an amnesty buyout, and then original team then re sign the guy?

The Flames get Lecavalier and the third pick for Flames garbage that they would be buying out plus say the 22nd pick. Flames promptly buy him out, and Tampa resigns him.
Costs the Flames owners a ton of real money for the buyout, but no cap space and they shed some space of their own. With the new rules, Tampa can trade some of that cap space as well as part of the deal if they wanted.

Obviously highly unlikely, but the Flames could do Tampa a favour getting them out from that contract, but Tampa keeps him in the end, and in turn the Flames basically buy the 3rd overall pick, and use up one of their buyouts.

Our ownership did not seem like they wanted to pay Kotalik $3million, and it also seems like they did not want to eat salary on JBO. I highly doubt they want to pay that much cash for a Vinny buy out, even if it means a top 3 pick.

[nik-]

The Flames owners seemingly wouldn't even eat any of Bouwmeesters contract to up his value and they were willing to trade a second to not eat Kotalik's salary. There's no way they'd buy out a contract like that.

edit: yikes kyuss

[calgarywinning]

This was an extremely informative event. It was well produced and they had a generous spread. They made themselves fully available for at least an hour and a half. Jay Feaster really speaks well, articulates and makes his points.

I think the better format would be a presentation and then fan questions after a break, so that the fan base can discuss the information as presented and once absorbed present questions.

For example; after discussing the event Jay had said they see trading up as a possibility but not trading down.

Jay Feaster also said that Jarome would have been happy to play out the existing season had he not been traded to the Penguins and therefore we would have gotten squat.

We wanted to ask after the presentation was the pre- Jarome Iginla trade was the loss trajectory inline with a second or third round pick.

Subsequently we would ask:

Did the Jarome Iginla trade cause us to lose the second or third round pick?

That this is could be the potential true cost associated with the movement.

That aside, I am still a firm believer in that it was a class move for the Flames to move him to his choice team as a real cup contender and that the man earned and deserved that option. Jay Feaster himself said that there is the business side to the equation and that he was dealt for the best possible deal to Boston but did not want to go. That they evaluated the thermonuclear option of "NO" and that owners were involved and it didn't make sense to say "NO". However, I believe, and this would have been a great question is did you let him go to the cup contender because they have the best chance of winning the cup? Which either Ken King or Jay Feaster acknowledged that they believe the Pens will go the distance. Also, given the story about Jarome wanting to keep extending by five more games.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

Glad to hear that Feaster does not like the UFA route this year. I still think his buy out route is going to have flaws. Don't see teams buying out players in the age bracket that Feaster wants. Also some of the high priced buy out players are going to get a lot of money and will probably rather sign a one year deal on the cheap side, with teams that have a chance at the playoffs. The cap is probably going to go up for the 2014 -15 season.

I would not worry about Feaster getting Vinny's contract. He still has a NMC and probably would not waive to come to Calgary. I could see him saying "if you don't want me, then buy me out".

Based on what Feaster said tonight, I think the target of any older player acquisitions might be players whose teams are trying to move them before using a buyout. It will be hard to convince a high-profile free agent to come to Calgary and be part of re-building team. He mentioned it will probably be easier to find guys with one or two years left on their contracts who are looking to prove themselves next year.



Based on absolutely nothing that was said and only my own speculation, I think a guy like Dany Heatley could be a potential target. He has one year left with a $7.5M cap hit and a $5M salary for next season. He has Calgary connections. Hartley coached him in Atlanta (I don't know what the status of their relationship is). Because he ended the season injured, he might not be able to be bought out by the Wild (I don't know how those rules work).

[browna]

In reference to the 'buy the draft pick':
Probably not, but I wonder in less extreme circumstances, that teams who need cap help or want to get cap flexibility, while keeping their player, do that.
Ie trade Tanguay to Team X, Team X buys him out, and Flames resign for a 1 year, 1m deal. Tanguay makes a million dollars more and still get his real money buyout and is free at the end of the year. The Flames save 2.5m in cap space and get something of value or no value from the other team. Or even two teams in the same boat make the trade and buyout and resign their player, since you can't resign a player you've bought out, for a year. Tanguay to team X, PlayerB to the Flames. Each guy gets bought out by the new team (could even net out to very minimal net dollar effect between the teams), and signs back to their old team. Each team keeps their player for less of a cap hit.

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by getbak

Based on what Feaster said tonight, I think the target of any older player acquisitions might be players whose teams are trying to move them before using a buyout. It will be hard to convince a high-profile free agent to come to Calgary and be part of re-building team. He mentioned it will probably be easier to find guys with one or two years left on their contracts who are looking to prove themselves next year.



Based on absolutely nothing that was said and only my own speculation, I think a guy like Dany Heatley could be a potential target. He has one year left with a $7.5M cap hit and a $5M salary for next season. He has Calgary connections. Hartley coached him in Atlanta (I don't know what the status of their relationship is). Because he ended the season injured, he might not be able to be bought out by the Wild (I don't know how those rules work).

I get that, but most of the older players that could be bought out seem to have NMC/NTC. It's not hard to imagine them saying no to a trade to Calgary and insisting on being bought out instead.

I thought of Heatley also. My problem is that Heatley is just as bad at floating as some of the top 6 the flames have had in recent years. I believe Feaster is trying to get away from that.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Tampa has less than $3.5M in cap space with 17 players signed. They are in a bit of trouble

Ohlund's career is pretty much done and they can put him on LTIR once the season starts, so that would free up an addition 3.6 million in space.

[flamesrule14]

Real cool and informative event. Here are a few things that I remember. If I think of anything else after I'll edit or make another post.

-Irving will not be back. The flames do not see him as a NHL goalie. First question of the night and Feaster got a little defensive when told Irving got screwed and wasn't given much of a chance.

-Ortio is coming over and they hope he becomes the number 1 in Abbotsford. Ramo will be signed as soon as they can sign him and he'll compete for the starter job along with Berra and McDonald.

-Kipper most likely will retire, but they are giving him time to make a final decision.

-Went extremely hard after DeKeyser. Had everyone in the meeting with him including Hartley. Had Hartley explain who he would play with and the system and all that. Even brought a jersey with his name on it. And lastly had a reserved plane ticket back to Calgary for him if he had chosen to sign.

-Going to be very agressive in trying to get into the top three. Will not drop down though whatsoever. They will be picking 6 at the worst. And if so they feel they can still get a great player with that pick.

-Feaster is taking a redeye to Toronto tonight to join with all the scouting and management at the combine. Have over 20 interviews tomorrow and are even taking a player out for dinner. If I was understanding correctly it sounded like the player was Nichushkin.

-Speaking of Nichushkin it sounded like they weren't sold on him coming over. Seemed very aware that despite what he is saying they are not so sure Dynamo is just going to let him take off to the NHL. I don't think they take him if he is available.

-Nemisz will be qualified and most likely resigned. He struggled last season and Ward tried everything to get him going, but he just had a bad year. Sounds like they haven't given up on him. Feaster said he'll come into camp trying to win a spot.

-Some veterans are not part of the solution and they will try to move them the best they can. Feaster said buyouts would not be something they are looking to do.

-O'Reilly situation was brought up and Feaster and King both stood by the decision. Said they would have fought the NHL with the ruling. It was embarrasing and they took some lumps for it, but they were pretty convinced they were in the right. Said six other teams had an offer sheet out, including one team who's GM said in an interview they knew about the waivers. Clear shot at Gillis I assume.

-UFA market not deep. Will be trying to improve team through trades rather then the UFA market. Biggest need is a top 2 line center. Going to be working hard to get that center.

Those are the main points I remember right now anyways. Feaster is a great speaker and I really do like him. He seems very passionate and I really do believe they are heading in the right direction.

[sun]

Surprised about Nemisz. Not surprised about Irving, but definitely disappointed. Another poor first round pick even though he showed some promise from time to time.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

Our ownership did not seem like they wanted to pay Kotalik $3million, and it also seems like they did not want to eat salary on JBO. I highly doubt they want to pay that much cash for a Vinny buy out, even if it means a top 3 pick.

I had thought it was more to do with tagging room so they could make that mega-offer to Brad Richards