Eight players joined the Calgary Flames organization on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the big news from the two days wasn’t the draft. The Flames opted not to tender a qualifying offer to centre Mark Jankowski.
On a Webex call with the media, general manager Brad Treliving explained the move.
It wasn’t one that didn’t come with a lot of thought about it. Janko had a tough year. We talked with his representatives about potentially coming in at a number that would be different than what his QO was at. In a lot of ways, this is a product of maybe a financial decision. When I say a financial decision, just being able to reallocate monies. They had talked about maybe a desire to have a fresh start somewhere. You know, Mark’s been here a long time. As I talked to him today, I didn’t draft Mark but we came in here together. He’s a good kid and he’s a good player. We wish him the very best, but we just felt where he was at on a qualifier that this was a prudent decision for us, and we wish him all the very best and thank him for all that he’s put in during his time here.
Jankowski was the Flames’ first round pick in the 2012 NHL Draft. He played 208 NHL games over four seasons, accumulating 36 goals and 64 points while playing almost exclusively on the team’s fourth line.
With the Flames declining to tender a $1.75 million, one-way qualifying offer, Jankowski becomes an unrestricted free agent on Friday morning.
