Saturday, October 14, 2017

Calgary Flames 15 Best/Worst Contracts of Salary Cap Era


UPDATED: JUNE 2018

What are the Calgary Flames 15 best and 15 worst non-entry level contracts they have signed since the NHL had a salary cap? Darryl Sutter was only the GM for 42% of the salary cap era for the Flames but has his signature on 60% of the contracts below, good and bad. 

BEST

1- Mikka Kiprusoff, Aug 13 2005, 3 years $10M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. He won a Vezina in year one. It’s hard to put a price tag on a Vezina calibre season, but this price was a bargain.

2- Mark Giordano, Oct 29 2010, 5 years $20M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. This is one of the cheaper contracts you’ll see for a 27-year-old defenseman coming off a 40-point season. Luckily for Calgary they signed the extension in October before he burst through the 40-point threshold. He scored 21 goals and 56 PTS in the final year.

3- Sean Monahan, Aug 19 2016, 7 years $44.6M: Signed by Brad Treliving. 2 seasons into this contract and the kid as scored 122 PTS in 152 GP as a legit top line center. As the cap continues to grow, he becomes even more of a bargain.

4- Mark Giordano, July 1 2008, 3 years $2.7M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. In year two of this contract Giordano stepped up to the next level playing over 20 minutes per game and scoring 30 PTS for under $1M AAV.

5- Daymond Langkow, Aug 4 2005, 3 years $7.3M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. He scored 200 PTS on this contract. That $2.5M AAV is more like $4.5M in 2018 numbers accounting for cap inflation, but still a great price.

6- Mikael Backlund, Jun 20 2016, 3 years $10.7M: Signed by Brad Treliving. He averaged nearly 20 goals, 50 PTS and 18 minutes of ice time per game under this contract. That’s a great price for that production.

7- TJ Brodie, July 31 2013, 2 years $4.2M: Signed by Jay Feaster. 72 PTS from the blueline at that price is a steal. Brodie had not put up great numbers before signing this deal, so Calgary was rewarded for taking a leap of faith.

8- Dougie Hamilton, Jun 30 2015, 6 years $34.5M: Signed by Brad Treliving. Half way through this contract he has scored 137 PTS in 245 GP and is 25 years old. That level of skill is hard to find, especially for under $6M aav. Whatever their reasons for wanting to trade him, Carolina just acquired a highly skilled bargain contract.

9- Johnny Gaudreau, Oct 10 2016, 6 years $40.5M: Signed by Brad Treliving. Mr Hockey had a disappointing year one, but was back among the NHL’s scoring elite by year two with 84 PTS in 80 GP. He and Monahan give the team a potent top scoring line for years to come.

10- Curtis Glencross, July 2 2008, 3 years $3.6M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. He scored 116 PTS with 418 shots, 306 hits, 52 goals, and was +31 under this contract. That’s great for $1.2M aav.

11- Dion Phaneuf, Feb 6 2008, 6 years $39M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. This contract produced 437 GP, 212 PTS, 1127 Shots, and 1111 Hits in the regular season. Sure, it was light on playoff games but still provided good value.

12- Olli Jokinen, July 1 2010, 2 years $6M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. That’s a good price to play for 115 PTS in 161 GP playing over 18 minutes per game.

13- TJ Brodie, Oct 19 2014, 5 years $23.3M: Signed by Brad Treliving. This wasn’t nearly as much of a bargain as his previous contract, but still a good price for the minutes this guy plays, averaging close to 24 minutes per game. His point production has started to decline from his career high of 45 in 2016, and he’s -32 over the last 2 seasons, but still good value.

14- Matt Lombardi, Jun 1 2007, 3 years $5.4M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. If you went to any GM and said “you can have 135 PTS for $5.4M”, I’m sure every one of them would take it. He would spend the final season of this contract in Phoenix after being traded for Olli Jokinen.

15- Rene Bourque, July 3 2008, 2 years $2.7M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. It’s hard to find 98 PTS for $2.7M (although accounting for cap inflation that’s closer to $5M, but still a good deal). He also registered 364 shots and 173 hits.

WORST

1-Robyn Regehr, July 4 2007, 5 years $20M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. In year one he played 75 games and scored 8 PTS (his totals the 3 previous seasons were 26, 21, 20). His Corsi For % over the 5 seasons of this contract were 53%, 50%, insert 30th birthday, 48%, 44%, 42%. This was too much money for a player that produces very little offense who got old fast.

2- Jay Bouwmeester, Jun 30 2009, 5 years $33M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. Prior to signing this contract, he was averaging 40 PTS per year, then immediately saw a 10+ drop in point production in year one. He averaged 25 minutes a night, but Calgary also never made the playoffs with J-Bo. With cap inflation the AAV adjusts to $8.6M. He’s a decent player that many teams would like to have had, but that’s a high price tag for what he provided.

3- Rene Bourque, Feb 25 2010, 6 years $20M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. Bourque’s point totals over these 6 seasons were (50, 24, 13, 16, 14, 18) for an AAV of $3.3M. That’s not good.

4- Troy Brouwer, July 1st 2016, 4 years $18M: Signed by Brad Treliving. His 2 seasons prior to signing this contract produced 43 and 39 PTS. The first 2 years in Calgary have produced 25 and 22 PTS. Now he’s 33 years old with 2 more years to play at a big price. Yikes.

5- Anton Babchuck, July 4 2011, 2 years $5M: Signed by Jay Feaster. He scored 27 goals and 70 PTS in the two seasons prior to signing this contract, then went on to score 11 PTS in 39 GP for $5M. That’s an F.

6- Jonas Hiller, July 1st 2014, 2 years $9M: Signed by Brad Treliving. Year one he was decent with a 2.36 GAA and .918 SV%. Year two was far from decent, with a 3.51 GAA and .879 SV%.

7- Cory Sarich, July 1 2007, 5 years $18M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. In 351 GP Sarich scored 51 PTS. He wasn’t completely useless, but still overpriced for what he provided.

8- Matt Stajan, Jan 20 2014, 4 years $12.5M: Signed by Brian Burke. Stajan averaged 55 PTS per season on his previous contract and dropped to 26 PTS avg on this one.  They got half as much production for twice the price.

9- Mason Raymond, July 1 2014, 3 years $9.4M: Signed by Brad Treliving. He scored 45 PTS the season before signing this contract, then only scored 28 PTS in 86 GP before being bought out. Now he’s playing in the Swiss league.

10- Lance Bouma, July 23 2015, 3 years $6.6M: Signed by Brad Treliving. He scored 34 PTS in 78 GP to earn this contract and has rewarded Calgary with 14 PTS in 105 GP since signing it. The team overpaid for a career year that is unlikely ever to be replicated despite the fact that he’s still young.

11- Rhett Warrener, Aug 12 2005, 4 years $9.5M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. That contract was signed with a $39M salary cap, so that AAV is closer to $5M in 2018 numbers. He played only 151 games, scoring 20 PTS. Injuries did derail his career.

12- Wayne Primeau, Jun 28 2007, 3 years $4.2M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. He scored 44 PTS in the two seasons prior to signing this contract, then scored 22 PTS in 126 GP for $4.2M. That’s an F.

13- Anders Eriksson, July 6 2007, 2 years $3M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. This was a great addition for the Quad City Flames. The last season on this contract he scored an impressive 49 PTS for $1.5M, unfortunately for Calgary those PTS were scored in the AHL. Millionaire AHLers are always an F.

14- Andrei Zyuzin, July 1 2006, 2 years $2.8M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. They overpaid for a 27-year-old defenseman coming off an 18-point season, and they got 11 PTS in 81 GP over 2 years.

15- Marcus Nilson, Jun 1 2007, 2 years $2M: Signed by Darryl Sutter. In the last year of this contract he scored just 5 PTS in 47 GP and hasn’t played in the NHL since.

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