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FlamesNation Top 25 of 2020: #24 — Even with higher cap, Calgary Flames have big decisions to make
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Laing
Dec 2, 2020, 17:21 ESTUpdated: Dec 2, 2020, 18:00 EST
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Welcome to the yearly wrap up of the top read articles over the last year!
A mere days before the NHL season would hit pause amid growing outbreaks of COVID-19 around the world, FlamesNation editor Ryan Pike penned about how with what was expected to be a higher cap, the Calgary Flames would have tough decisions to make.
It was that article, published on March 7, that became the 24th most read article on FlamesNation.
Even with higher cap, Flames have big decisions to make
At the time, the roster locks for the 2020-21 season were fewer. There’s some much needed big ticket players like Mark Giordano, Matthew Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, not to mention a number of others in the $4.5-$5.35-million range. But most importantly, as Pike noted, the Flames had 10 open roster spots to fill with roughly $20.3-million to fill the spots.
Calgary was forced to let a number of players walk in thanks to a pandemic-flattened $81.5-million cap. TJ Brodie, Travis Hamonic, Derek Forbort, Erik Gustafsson, Michael Stone, and Mark Jankowski all walked in free agency.
Calgary was able to secure Andrew Mangiapane at $2.45-million, while bringing in new faces like Josh Leivo, Joakim Nordstrom, Dominik Simon, Chris Tanev, Nikita Nesterov and the ultimate prize, Jacob Markstrom, all under the while fitting under the cap. with one million to spare.
Tidy work all around from Brad Treliving.
Here’s a bit of what else Pike wrote in that article:
The Flames cap situation for this year is tight, and complicated somewhat by Juuso Valimaki likely spending the whole season on long-term injury reserve (LTIR). But here’s what we think we know: barring a slew of late recalls from the American Hockey League, the Flames likely won’t be over the $81.5 million cap for this season. (This is presuming that Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington combine for around $100,000 in games-played performance bonuses.)
Take that $20.3 million and burn off $3 million on a goalie, $7 million on a couple defensemen and $2 million on Mangiapane’s new deal and suddenly there’s only $8.3 million remaining and six spots to fill. The cap space will disappear very quickly and it’ll be interesting to see what shuffling Brad Treliving does following the end of the season (or playoffs).
On Twitter: @zjlaing

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