saneopinion

"Keep the opinions sane and well thought out."

Canada, AB • Canada •

A little conjecture never hurt anyone...

Right now as it stands the Flames are looking grim, bumping up against the cap with a little wiggle room and sitting at .500, this seems like a great time to make up some trade posibilities and use some facts as well.

Recently there was a rumor circulating that Kovalev was a target of the Calgary Flames for Tanguay, obviously based on the points Tangauy gets and the fact Kovalev is overpriced means this is a one up deal that would never happen. Having said that, perhaps where there's smoke there's fire.

Consider that next year the Flames will, at the very least, have to resign Dion Phaneuf, but possibly Langkow and Huselius as well. How can this be acheived? By Sutters own admission the flames will lose 5-6 players every year. Right now the Flames have around $46,000,000.00 in commited payroll for THIS year so where to trim fat and who to trade for?? Here's my take.

Trim the fat:
Craig Conroy- 2.85 million and 3 points so far and promote Nystrom for 690,000 and save... $2,155,000
Marcus Nilson- 1 mil great guy but we have several like him and promote prust saving roughly .5 million
Owen Nolon- 1.75 million brings a lot of aspects but not points
Rhett Warrener at 2.5 million- his speed is a liability now bring back giordano at 2 million saving .5 (yes we still have Giordano's rights)

So there is 7 million in replaced players however Kipper will be making roughly half of that in his upgrade and regher takes another roughly 1 million out as well leaving only 2.5 million (only)

Now two HUGE payrolls that could be looked at are Aucoin at a whopping $4 million!! Tanguay at $ 5.75 Million...over 9 million...

Now here comes my thought, if I was G.M.

Trade Tanguay to Montreal but not for Kovalev but Ryder and hopefully another good young player or an outstanding draft pick/s. Having a french Canadian NHL star coming in to town is worth something for the habs! Admit it! It's win/win, the flames lose the huge salary but gain a sniper who at this point would come cheap. In addition one of the Flames' better prospects, Daniel Ryder Mike's younger brother, has recently left the organization for what is rumored to be lack of will to play the game...would his Brother playing on the big club change his mind?? This move would save you roughly 2.5 Million in Salary.

Next is Move Aucoin... he's playing pretty well right now but his Salary is crazy and the Flames will be burdened with it for another year, if no takers come than ask him to renegotiate to lower the cap hit or go to the minors, I'd love to see him here at maybe 2/3 or even half the price. At this time the blue jackets are looking for an offensive defensman... This move would save around 4 million.

So with those two moves and trimming the fat the flames would be left with anywhere between 6-9 million, divy that up between your remaining free agents and you might be able to retain the big three free agents in Phaneuf, Langkow and Huselius (maybe). So with the SAME salary you have now your forward lines go from:

Tanguay Langkow Iginla
Huselius Conroy Nolon
Nilson Lombardi Moss
Goddard Primeau yelle

to

Huselius Langkow Iginla
Boyd (?) Lombardi Ryder
Prust Nystrom Moss (awesome young fast line here)
Goddard Primeau Yelle

My big one is Craig Conroy, I love the guy but this isn't 4-5 years ago, he doesn't have that magic with iggy anymore and Keenan has to stop thinking he does, it's costing them games. There is at least two more prospects with a shot at coming up as well and a lot of "d" in the system as well. Your thoughts are welcome!

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