Flames ink Martin and Elson

Kent Wilson
September 23 2011 10:01AM

I noted this in the comments elsewhere, but the Calgary Flames announced the signing of camp invitees Trurner Elson and James Martin yesterday. The pair are both junior eligible players who slipped through the draft and were therefore available as free agents.

Defenseman James Martin turned some heads with his consistent play at the rookie tournament in Penticton. A team mate of Joey Leach and Max Reinhart on the Kootenay Ice, Martin can return to the club this winter as a 20-year old. This takes care of the apparent crowding of the Flames/Heat blueline that Martin's addition to the pro ranks would have caused.

Turner Elson is a smaller, spark-plug type forward from the Red Deer Rebels. Although he weighs just 170 pounds, it didn't stop him from compiling 124 PIM in his sophomore junior season last year. He also added 15-goals and 31-points in 68 games. Elson turned 19 a few weeks ago so has a year or two of potential junior eligilibty as well. Look for him to be returned to the Rebels in short order.

The contracts are standard three-year ELCs around the league minimum ($575,00 and $560,000 for Martin and Elson respectively).

Kent is a published author and the Nations Network Managing Editor. His work also appears at Hockey Prospectus. Catch him regularly on the FAN960 in Calgary and TEAM 1260 in Edmonton. For questions, complaints, criticisms, etc contact Kent @ kent.wilson@gmail. Follow him on Twitter here.

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Reply #1 Colin September 23 2011, 10:07AM

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Flames Website has Elson going back to his junior team, which is no surprise, no way he was making the flames and he's to young/small for Abbotsford.

I think Martin is still in Camp, if thats the case he will be returned to junior once he is cut. Makes ZERO sense to send him to Abbotsford as there is already a log jam of defence there and you want to get him meaningful minutes. He is Leachs defence partner in Kooteney and they played a ton last year, so should probably be getting some good minutes there. Probably not against the competition he needs, but it gives him a chance to work on the little things and really work on weight training before he makes the jump to the AHL.

Reply #2 xis10ce September 23 2011, 10:12AM

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I'm probably wrong on this one but I thought we were already at the 50 contract max? Do they not count towards that tally? I guess in the end I'm not very familiar with the way that all works.

Reply #3 jeremywilhelm September 23 2011, 10:34AM

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Surprised at the Elson contract. He didn't stand out to me in the slightest.

Reply #4 Kent Wilson September 23 2011, 10:38AM

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@xis10ce

I thought so too. The addition of these guys makes it 52. Perhaps there are exceptions I'm not privy to.

Reply #5 mayhemsince1977 September 23 2011, 11:03AM

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Do guys on LTIR count? If not, then perhaps some foreshadowing.

Reply #6 icedawg_42 September 23 2011, 12:51PM

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Kent Wilson wrote:

I thought so too. The addition of these guys makes it 52. Perhaps there are exceptions I'm not privy to.

maybe they dont count if they're going back to junior?

Reply #7 Kent Wilson September 23 2011, 01:12PM

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@icedawg_42

That might be it.

Reply #8 JF September 23 2011, 01:37PM

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Kent Wilson wrote:

I thought so too. The addition of these guys makes it 52. Perhaps there are exceptions I'm not privy to.

Wouldn't SVEN, Reinhart, and Elson be slide risks? Meaning that they wouldn't count against the reserve list limit unless they play 10 professional games?