Vesa's Gone?
Steinberg
August 09 2010 05:52PM
We all knew Vesa Toskala wouldn't be a member of the Calgary Flames for this upcoming season, as GM Darryl Sutter said as much following the season. However, it now seems Vesa won't find employment period in the NHL, as various reports have him bolting for the Swedish Elite League.
In the Face
Kent Wilson
August 09 2010 02:20PM
Riley Cote announced today that he would retiring at the age of 28 in order to take a coaching position with the Flyers AHL squad. As Gabe notes here, Cote did little more than sit in the penalty box during his professional career, which got me wondering just what wisdom he of one goal in 156 games might be able impart to the next generation of NHLers. As a result, here's how I figure a Cote dressing room chalkboard session might go: (some NSFW language)
Calgary's PP: Bad by design?
Robert Cleave
August 06 2010 12:28AM
As I look back at last season, I'll confess that for all the annoyances I may have had with certain players on last year's Flames' club, I'm not sure that they always were properly deployed by their coach. One particular gripe that I had virtually all season was the insistence of Brent Sutter to use Regehr or Staios on the PP unit. Neither man has any recent history suggesting that they add any offence, and what made that choice even more galling was the fact that the Flames employed players that had excelled as PP point men elsewhere, and I'm not talking about defencemen either.
Mapping the NHL Cap Environment
Kent Wilson
August 05 2010 02:53PM
With discussions of the Flames obvious cap issues on-going (with no end in sight), there's been a lot of suggestions that Darryl will be able to dump a Cory Sarich or Steve Staios on a "cap floor" team if things get desperate come September. While the league is indeed polarized between a bevy of cap-strapped and cap-flush clubs, the truth is the former greatly outnumber the latter, particularly when real dollars (rather than cap space) is considered. Here's how the current budgetary landscape for each club breaks down:
Outdoor Implications?
Steinberg
August 05 2010 12:41AM
So, the NHL unveiled their plans for the Heritage Classic at McMahon Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, an event we will get into later on this week at FlamesNation. The Calgary Flames used Curtis Glencross, Cory Sarich and Steve Staios as their faces at McMahon, which I thought was slightly amusing. Two of those names (Staios and Sarich) have been extremely popular names this summer when it comes to where the Flames could trim salary...maybe it is wishful thinking?
