Andrew Mangiapane is about to get expensive

A year ago, the Calgary Flames and restricted free agent Andrew Mangiapane were at a stalemate. Mangiapane, with no arbitration rights, felt he was worth a certain amount. The Flames disagreed and wished for him to take a little bit less. In the end, Mangiapane settled for a deal at a smidge above league minimum salary.

A year later, Mangiapane is about to become pretty expensive.

Let’s be honest, there are no perfect comparisons because Mangiapane is kind of a late bloomer and last season could either be an aberration or a sign that he’s really, really good. (His even strength production and ability to drive play suggests the latter.)

The Flames didn’t throw him into the deep end in pro and while he could’ve played higher in the rotation than the fourth line in 2018-19, he gained a ton of confidence and experience in that role that arguably helped him thrive in 2019-20.

On a short term deal (two seasons), the conversation probably gets interesting when the cap hit gets around $2.4 million. On a longer deal (closer to four seasons), somewhere around $2.8 to $3 million would be enough to become tantalizing for the Mangiapane camp. Once you get past three seasons, you’re starting to buy potential UFA years.

With the cap flat for the next while, there might be an incentive for both sides to get something longer term done at a reasonable cap number that allows the Flames to maneuver in other ways (and other parts of their line-up). Especially with an expansion draft coming up in a year, cost certainty is something that would be very beneficial for the Flames to have.