Kulak On Waivers

[Moneyhands23]

Vancouver or Edmonton will take him

[CaptainCrunch]

Edmonton doesn't have the cap space to take the chance on him

[Moneyhands23]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Edmonton doesn't have the cap space to take the chance on him

That's funny sad and brings joy to my day

[Jore]

i've always liked kulak. he's consistent and makes good plays with the puck in transition, and rarely gets caught out of position or beat outright. however, i don't think he's irreplaceable, especially with guys like kylington and välimäki pushing for spots.

with that said, i wish the same principle of cap management and hard bargaining had applied to guys like stone and brouwer, who are eating 8 mil of dead cap while being among the worst regulars on the roster, whose contracts appear to be making extending hanifin to a longer term deal difficult, and, in the case of stone's contract, has driven the team to waive a young, capable nhler who's already at worst equivalent in actual on-ice impact.

[Jay Random]

UFAs cost what they cost, and if you don't pay it, they walk away. ‘The same principle of cap management and hard bargaining’ doesn't apply.

[btimbit]

Good tactic from Treliving. Would be surprised if a team claimed him without knowing what could happen in arbitration given that the claim likely adds a few hundred thousand to his contract value. If he does get claimed not really a big deal either

[jlh2640]

Weird but we will see, I like him but at best he is a 6th d man

[Jason14h]

Meh every team has their own Kulak.

[Heavy Jack]

Not too surprised honestly especially when you look at the left D waiting behind him in Kylington and Valimaki. I expected to see Hathaway on waivers before any of the other arbitration contracts that could have gone that route (Kulak, Rittich, Hathaway)

I expect a deal to get done for Rittich that is maybe for 1 year and a 1 way 8 to 900 K ~ this will create good competition at camp and the worse case scenario is if Gillies does indeed outplay Rittich and earn the backup spot than you just risk losing Rittich on waivers and if you did it just means more starts for Parsons in the AHL and Macdonald finally staying in the AHL too as a backup.

Janko will get done soon here but I think the contract holding a the others up is Hanifin's and I think its because the Flames are trying to figure out the best path to signing him up to either a 5 year deal or a 7 year where they buy a couple of UFA seasons.

Still a lot of summer left and a lot of chips left to fall into place but its going fast !

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

Meh every team has their own Kulak.

Edmonton has like 6 Kulaks.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Jore

i've always liked kulak. he's consistent and makes good plays with the puck in transition, and rarely gets caught out of position or beat outright. however, i don't think he's irreplaceable, especially with guys like kylington and välimäki pushing for spots.

with that said, i wish the same principle of cap management and hard bargaining had applied to guys like stone and brouwer, who are eating 8 mil of dead cap while being among the worst regulars on the roster, whose contracts appear to be making extending hanifin to a longer term deal difficult, and, in the case of stone's contract, has driven the team to waive a young, capable nhler who's already at worst equivalent in actual on-ice impact.

Agreed. And no, no one is holding a gun to their head to sign a Brouwer or a Stone, even if they are UFAs they were not impact players even when they were signed.

Anyways the following, for whatever it's worth, sort of highlights why I already think Kulak is a useful player. It's not as obvious as blocked shots or assists like it might be with other players, but you can get an idea for what is visually observable as "play driving". Among the sample of 192 defensemen who were examined in the ice time sample,

Spoiler!

Of course he's not a star player or even a major impact player, but these things allow him to make a net-positive impact. I hope he clears waivers.

[Beninho]

Him and stone were both inevitably going to be moved for younger better players. Not surprised at all by this

[ForeverFlameFan]

Originally Posted by Beninho

Him and stone were both inevitably going to be moved for younger better players. Not surprised at all by this

Kulak is 24...?

[aiy_yah]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Edmonton has like 6 Kulaks.

Thought it was 6 Giordanos. They don't need a Kulak.

[tvp2003]

As a random aside, remember when Ryan Culkin and Brett Kulak were basically neck and neck in terms of development (some even thought Culkin was developing faster until a crazy wrist injury ended his season a few years back).

For those still keeping score on Culkin vs Kulak, Culkin spent all of last season in the ECHL and recently signed a minor league deal with Montreal...

[getbak]

Originally Posted by tvp2003

As a random aside, remember when Ryan Culkin and Brett Kulak were basically neck and neck in terms of development (some even thought Culkin was developing faster until a crazy wrist injury ended his season a few years back).

For those still keeping score on Culkin vs Kulak, Culkin spent all of last season in the ECHL and recently signed a minor league deal with Montreal...

Yeah, it really shows you how thin the line can be sometimes. If Culkin doesn't get injured, he likely gets called up after Gio's injury and would have had a chance to show what he could do. He was never the same after that.

[Oil Stain]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Edmonton has like 6 Kulaks.

He's good, but is he Kevin Gravel good?

[Fire]

Kulak must be asking for over $1+ million. With the Flames being tight to the cap you don't want to pay that for a guy that could easily be the #7 most of the season. Would prefer not to lose him but his upside is a bottom pairing defenseman.

[Samonadreau]

I, like most others, understand the move but I also dont see much upside from Stone over Kulak at 3 to 4 times the cost - aside from Stone's cannon of a shot when he can hit the net. Kulak seems to have better puck management.

I personally think a Kulak-Andersson 3rd pairing would be pretty intriguing .

Who knows though. Hopefully he clears.

[EldrickOnIce]

I like Kulak. I think he is better than Stone in most facets of the game, but a guy like stone is needed on PK so...

The other thing this does as well, is sends a loud message to a guy like Hathaway: You're next to be waived without reasonable demands.

As was said, you can not over pay your bottom end guys, so this is OK, but better it was Stone, imo.