Report: Flames are talking with Jaromir Jagr’s camp

The hockey world seemed to take Sunday off, enjoying the beginning of October by drafting their fantasy teams. Then the Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun dropped a bomb.

The Flames still don’t have a ton of established right wing depth. Michael Frolik is their best actual right winger. Micheal Ferland is a converted left wing. Curtis Lazar is a fringe NHLer and had a lousy camp. Troy Brouwer got bumped to the fourth line in a preseason game so the coaching staff could see how Mark Jankowski could do with Sam Bennett and Kris Versteeg. Aside from Frolik, it’s not an inspiring bunch.

Jagr’s a right wing. He’s a known quantity. If you put him with good players, he plays pretty well. The fit’s there, as we’ve established here. Oh, and he’s the second-leading scorer in NHL history. Presumably, the trigger for circling back on Jagr’s availability would be the iffy performances we’ve seen from a lot of the righties in camp.

Cap-wise, the Flames have some flexibility. Depending on which player a Jagr signing may dislodge, the Flames have roughly $2.99 million in cap space. Jagr probably wants around $4 million to play, but the Flames could always get creative and use performance bonuses to stay below the cap (and give themselves some flexibility).

We’ll have more on this story as it develops. (If it develops.)