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[Speculation] Flames Have Paused Contract Talks With Pending UFAs

RWJC

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RWJC

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Flames Have Paused Contract Talks With Pending UFAs

 

October 31st, 2023 at 5:19pm CST • By Josh Erickson

 

The vibes were good in Calgary.

 

A tumultuous 2022-23 season had seemingly been cleansed from the organization with the appointments of Craig Conroy in the GM’s chair and Ryan Huska behind the bench. Players were buying in, too – with Mikael Backlund signing a three-year extension in accordance with the captaincy and extension talks kicking off with top-pairing defenseman Noah Hanifin, who said last summer he wasn’t willing to consider remaining with the Flames.

 

Then the season started, and Sportnet’s Eric Francis is now reporting the Flames have paused all extension talks with their 2024 class of UFAs, which includes Hanifin and first-line center Elias Lindholm. A 2-6-1 start has the Flames seventh in the Pacific Division and 15th in the Western Conference, only ahead of the lowly San Jose Sharks. They’ve allowed more goals in the same amount of games than the defensively-challenged Blackhawks – and even that’s with netminder Jacob Markströmrebounding, albeit slightly, from last season’s poor form. Daniel Vladar has been limited to just two starts thanks to a sieve-like .842 SV% and 4.51 GAA, however.

 

What’s worse is that two familiar refrains from last season have come back to haunt them. The team is controlling possession well, holding 53.9% of Corsi events at five-on-five and over half of all scoring and high-danger chances, but it hasn’t mattered. Star players are again underperforming, with many downright snakebitten.

 

In the second season of a seven-year, $49MM deal, Nazem Kadri has just two points through nine games and a -11 rating. 2021-22 NHL assists leader Jonathan Huberdeau, in the second season of an eight-year, $84MM deal, is barely averaging over 17 minutes per game and has two goals and three assists through nine games. Perhaps the only one of their recent big-time acquisitions is performing up to par – defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, who may have just three points but is controlling possession better than almost anyone on the team with a 57.5% Corsi share at even strength.

 

Lindholm is also one of the few doing his part, tying for the team lead in scoring with six points and averaging over 21 minutes a game, although he hasn’t been worth the rumored $9MM AAV price tag that’s been bandied about in the past few weeks. Things aren’t going well for the Flames’ other notable pending UFAs, both defensemen – Chris Tanev has been held off the scoresheet through nine contests and has a -6 rating, while Nikita Zadorov is projected to sit as a healthy scratch for Wednesday’s game against the Stars.

 

If the Flames don’t find themselves close to the playoff picture by the March 8, 2024, trade deadline, they could become one of the biggest players near deadline day in recent memory. All four of Lindholm, Hanifin, Tanev, and Zadorov have the pedigree to fetch anywhere between decent and extravagant returns, even if one or all is still having a down season by the time February rolls around and trade discussions begin in earnest.
 

With another strong slate of prospects expected to be available in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, the Flames would do well to help retool their franchise on the fly with a few high-end prospects injected into their system.

 

 

link to article:

https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2023/10/flames-have-paused-contract-talks-with-pending-ufas.html#ref=home

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Elias Pettersson All-Star

Elias Pettersson

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Calgary is screwed.  They will need to go into rebuild mode.  However, they will have to do that with the worst anchor contract in the NHL in Jonathan Huberdeau.  Poor Calgary, I almost feel sorry for them.  This also could have been us if Benning was still around.

 

Zadorov a healthy scratch?  Haha, the coach better get some secret service protection if he's gonna start playing his little games with big Z.  What a loser this guy is.  Ryan Huska.  Played a total of one game in the NHL.  Is basically a junior coach.  Willie D 2.0...

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VegasCanuck All-Star

VegasCanuck

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1 hour ago, RWJC said:

Flames Have Paused Contract Talks With Pending UFAs

 

October 31st, 2023 at 5:19pm CST • By Josh Erickson

 

The vibes were good in Calgary.

 

A tumultuous 2022-23 season had seemingly been cleansed from the organization with the appointments of Craig Conroy in the GM’s chair and Ryan Huska behind the bench. Players were buying in, too – with Mikael Backlund signing a three-year extension in accordance with the captaincy and extension talks kicking off with top-pairing defenseman Noah Hanifin, who said last summer he wasn’t willing to consider remaining with the Flames.

 

Then the season started, and Sportnet’s Eric Francis is now reporting the Flames have paused all extension talks with their 2024 class of UFAs, which includes Hanifin and first-line center Elias Lindholm. A 2-6-1 start has the Flames seventh in the Pacific Division and 15th in the Western Conference, only ahead of the lowly San Jose Sharks. They’ve allowed more goals in the same amount of games than the defensively-challenged Blackhawks – and even that’s with netminder Jacob Markströmrebounding, albeit slightly, from last season’s poor form. Daniel Vladar has been limited to just two starts thanks to a sieve-like .842 SV% and 4.51 GAA, however.

 

What’s worse is that two familiar refrains from last season have come back to haunt them. The team is controlling possession well, holding 53.9% of Corsi events at five-on-five and over half of all scoring and high-danger chances, but it hasn’t mattered. Star players are again underperforming, with many downright snakebitten.

 

In the second season of a seven-year, $49MM deal, Nazem Kadri has just two points through nine games and a -11 rating. 2021-22 NHL assists leader Jonathan Huberdeau, in the second season of an eight-year, $84MM deal, is barely averaging over 17 minutes per game and has two goals and three assists through nine games. Perhaps the only one of their recent big-time acquisitions is performing up to par – defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, who may have just three points but is controlling possession better than almost anyone on the team with a 57.5% Corsi share at even strength.

 

Lindholm is also one of the few doing his part, tying for the team lead in scoring with six points and averaging over 21 minutes a game, although he hasn’t been worth the rumored $9MM AAV price tag that’s been bandied about in the past few weeks. Things aren’t going well for the Flames’ other notable pending UFAs, both defensemen – Chris Tanev has been held off the scoresheet through nine contests and has a -6 rating, while Nikita Zadorov is projected to sit as a healthy scratch for Wednesday’s game against the Stars.

 

If the Flames don’t find themselves close to the playoff picture by the March 8, 2024, trade deadline, they could become one of the biggest players near deadline day in recent memory. All four of Lindholm, Hanifin, Tanev, and Zadorov have the pedigree to fetch anywhere between decent and extravagant returns, even if one or all is still having a down season by the time February rolls around and trade discussions begin in earnest.
 

With another strong slate of prospects expected to be available in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, the Flames would do well to help retool their franchise on the fly with a few high-end prospects injected into their system.

 

 

link to article:

https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2023/10/flames-have-paused-contract-talks-with-pending-ufas.html#ref=home

The problem is, they have 3 contracts that are completely unmovable. Huberdeau, Weegar and Kadri. They are massively overpaid considering how badly they are under performing. Imagine 8 full years of him at 10.5 million....

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Petey the Puck Whisperer Prospect

Petey the Puck Whisperer

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12 minutes ago, VegasCanuck said:

The problem is, they have 3 contracts that are completely unmovable. Huberdeau, Weegar and Kadri. They are massively overpaid considering how badly they are under performing. Imagine 8 full years of him at 10.5 million....

Yeah they have some anchors for sure. I knew Kadri's contract was going to be absolute trash before he even signed it, hes been an under-performer for the last 10 years.

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AnthonyG Top 6

AnthonyG

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1 hour ago, Moeknows said:

Yeah except he let Markstrom walk for nothing in return..that's some high incompetence level..

Yea except he had a 4-8mil cap increase come to a freeze for an unknown timeline and had Petey, Boeser, Hughes, JTM etc to re-sign in a flattened cap. If he had the “competence” of yourself, we’d be screwed. No one was taking risks in uncertain times. Look how well Tanev and Markstrom have panned out for CGY, Markstrom has been a sieve and Tanev has been badly banged up in the playoffs as he always is. Benning avoided bad a investment that would have screwed us even harder. There would be no room for Kuzmenko and Mikheyev.

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Moeknows NHL Grinder

Moeknows

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24 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

Yea except he had a 4-8mil cap increase come to a freeze for an unknown timeline and had Petey, Boeser, Hughes, JTM etc to re-sign in a flattened cap. If he had the “competence” of yourself, we’d be screwed. No one was taking risks in uncertain times. Look how well Tanev and Markstrom have panned out for CGY, Markstrom has been a sieve and Tanev has been badly banged up in the playoffs as he always is. Benning avoided bad a investment that would have screwed us even harder. There would be no room for Kuzmenko and Mikheyev.

Oh look kids..a Benning aplogist..look hard they're pretty rare.. medical science has come a long way..

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AnthonyG Top 6

AnthonyG

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9 minutes ago, Moeknows said:

Oh look kids..a Benning aplogist..look hard they're pretty rare.. medical science has come a long way..

Oh look a troll! Bennings been gone 2 years and you still cant stop talking about him for no reason, sounds like a broken hearted jealous ex who hasnt moved on yet. How cute

Edited by AnthonyG
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aGENT All-Star

aGENT

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1 hour ago, Moeknows said:

Yeah except he let Markstrom walk for nothing in return..that's some high incompetence level..

 

There was zero chance we were trading our starter in a playoff position. The expansion draft ensured we couldn't keep both guys. 

 

Tanev was the only real F-up there.

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Fen1010 Minor Leaguer

Fen1010

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2 hours ago, Moeknows said:

Yeah except he let Markstrom walk for nothing in return..that's some high incompetence level..

I still don't understand this statement.  Markstrom was still our starter, Bubble Demko hadn't happen yet. we were in a playoff race when covid shut the season down, Why would we have traded our starter while in a playoff race?

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Moeknows NHL Grinder

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27 minutes ago, Fen1010 said:

I still don't understand this statement.  Markstrom was still our starter, Bubble Demko hadn't happen yet. we were in a playoff race when covid shut the season down, Why would we have traded our starter while in a playoff race?

Sorry u don't understand 😄

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wai_lai416 All-Star

wai_lai416

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2 hours ago, Moeknows said:

Yeah except he let Markstrom walk for nothing in return..that's some high incompetence level..

so you trade your starting goalie away while in a playoff spot?? the canucks were in a playoff spot at the TDL.. not sure how you can justify trading ur starter away in the middle of a playoff push

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