Hailey Salvian of The Athletic: A look at some Calgary Flames free agents who may/may not be back and few trade possibilities.
Derek Ryan – UFA – 60 percent chance he’s gone.
Josh Leivo – UFA – 60 percent chance he’s gone
Dillon Dube – RFA – 99 percent chance he stays
Juuso Valimaki – RFA – 99 percent chance he stays
Brett Ritchie – UFA – 70 percent chance he stays
Joakim Nordstrom – UFA – 60 percent chance he goes
Michael Stone – UFA – 70 percent chance he stays
Nikita Nesterov – UFA – 80 percent chance he goes
Oliver Kylington – RFA – 80 percent chance he goes
Dominik Simon – RFA – 70 percent chance he goes
Louis Domingue – UFA – 100 percent chance he goes
Big Trade Possibilities
Johnny Gaudreau $6.75 million cap hit through 2022. Moving him just to make changes to your core makes little sense. His current trade value may not bring back a huge return. They don’t want to lose him for nothing in a year though. 60 percent chance he stays.
Matthew Tkachuk RFA after next season – Had a down season but not enough to say they need to move on. Tkachuk is their most valuable trade piece. If you trade him, you must get a big piece back – like a Jack Eichel. 98 percent chance he stays.
Sean Monahan $6.375 million cap hit through 2023. His hip issues could partially explain his down season. Played better under Sutter. He has a 10-team no-trade list. 50 percent chance he stays.
Hailey Salvain of The Athletic: Don’t believe the Calgary Flames will be looking to rebuild. They spent over $10 million last season on Jacob Markstrom and Chris Tanev.
Pending RFA include Connor Mackey, Dominik Simon, Artyom Zagidulin, Oliver Kylington, Glenn Gawdin, Juuso Valimaki and Dillon Dube. Valimaki and Dube are the top RFAs to re-sign. Andrew Mangiapane‘s two-year, $2.425 million deal is a good comparable to Dube. They could re-sign Valimaki to one- or two-year bridge deal.
If the Flames are going to change their core players, it must only be done to make them a better team.
Johnny Gaudreau finished the season with 17 points in their final 13 games. Do they try to extend him?
38-year old defenseman Mark Giordano has a year left at $6,75 and will likely be left exposed for the expansion draft.
