There’s a lot of Calgary Flames content in 32 Thoughts this week
By Ryan Pike
8 months agoThere’s a lot going on with the Calgary Flames at the moment, friends. A few key players are out with injuries. The team’s still looking for ideal line combinations. Several players on expiring contracts have yet to sign new deals.
Over at Sportsnet, our pal Elliotte Friedman dove into a lot of these topics in his 32 Thoughts column on Wednesday night.
Let’s dive in! (Our thoughts and notes added.)
5. Eric Francis with a good scoop on Tuesday, that Calgary called a timeout on all contract negotiations. The Flames enter Wednesday 2-6-1, 15th in the Western Conference, re-considering their approach. They were far along on an extension with Noah Hanifin, likely above Devon Toews’ number ($50.75M) in Colorado, when things broke off. That was Hanifin’s decision, as I’m not sure he’d want to commit if the Flames embark in a radical new direction.Owner Murray Edwards attended the outdoor game in Edmonton, and you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why Eric’s intel came when it did. Clearly, there were conversations about how to approach the rest of this season.
We got into the contract discussions saga the other day. In terms of Noah Hanifin, in our recent examination we estimated his market value would be around $7 million per season, which would be $49 million over seven years (or $56 million over eight years). Friedman didn’t specify the Hanifin term, but that gives you a rough idea of where things could have been at.
6. Aside from Hanifin, there was at least one offer exchanged with Chris Tanev, but things weren’t close. Elias Lindholm’s ask remains higher than Calgary is willing to go. So I don’t believe there’s anything else in Hanifin’s neighbourhood of nearness. (All the best to Nikita Zadorov and family, as he missed Wednesday’s game for family reasons.) Positive: Connor Zary looked smooth in his NHL debut.
There hasn’t been much out there in terms of Chris Tanev contract chatter, but it’s been established that the Flames are a bit hesitant to give out a lot of term to players past their 30th birthday. In terms of Elias Lindholm, the general ballpark figure that’s been kicking around is an eight-year deal with an AAV somewhere between $8.5 and $9 million per season. It’s a lot of money to commit.
7. An exec from another team said he heard that the Flames might rattle their room by putting a veteran player on waivers. That obviously hasn’t happened.
We have nothing to add here, aside from Connor Zary and Matt Coronato, everybody on the Flames roster would require waivers and clearing waivers would give Calgary the flexibility to move them back and forth from the AHL’s Wranglers for a little while. We’re not entirely sure which player would go on waivers, or if this was just a weird rumour.
8. One thing I have heard is that the Flames are committed to finding ways to make Jonathan Huberdeau better. On its surface, that sounds stupid, since he’s in year one of an eight-year megadeal, but there are always situations where teams give up on players, throwing up their hands in frustration. That’s the wrong answer, no matter how frustrating things get. Calgary spends a lot of time talking about solutions to his early-season malaise. Of course, there is onus on Huberdeau, too.
Jonathan Huberdeau is in the first season of his eight year, $10.5 million AAV mega-deal. He has five points over his first 10 games. Obviously, the Flames need more out of him both offensively and generally.
The Flames are back in action on Saturday night when they visit the Seattle Kraken.
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