Sutter And the Ever Shrinking Cap Space

Rumors are swirling that Flames GM Darryl Sutter has begun negotiations with pending UFA centerman Daymond Lankgow. This despite the fact the organization has more than $44M already committed to next season, with players like Yelle (1M)*, Hale (800k), Huselius (4M+), Conroy (1.5M) and Nolan (1.5M) also needing to be re-signed or replaced.

*(predicted re-sign value).

Damond Langkow is on the final year of a 3 year contract that paid him an average of 2.442M/season. He already has 25 goals and 56 points this season, just a year after recording 33 goals and 77 points. This year marks the 6th consecutive season Langkow has breached the 20 goal barrier and the 8th consecutive year he’s scored 50 or more points. He’s also been a plus player for the majority of his career. The last time he was in the red in terms of plus/minus was way back in the ‘98-99 season with the Philadelphia Flyers (-8).

In short, Langkow is the very picture of consistency. While he’s never going to be a big time point producer, he’s an established 20 goal, 50 point player who is both versatile and durable. It’s safe to say he would be a pretty hot commodity on the open market and it will no doubt cost the Flames a few more dollars than they’re currently paying to retain him.

Let’s assume Sutter pulls some jiggery-pokery with a long-term, descending type contract (see: Kippers extension, which pays him a relatively tiny 1.5M in the final year, thereby reducing the overall cap-hit substantially) and gets Langkow for a minimal raise – say 3.5M/year for example. That increases the committed dollars to about 47.5M and, reducing the resultant remaining space to between 7-9M (IF the Flames spend right up to next year’s cap). Seven to nine million dollars to sign or replace Conroy, Nolan, Yelle, Huselius and Hale. Huselius alone is positioned to soak up more than half of that figure, meaning:

- Sutter has a plan to reduce the committed cap dollars by cutting some of the roster fat, ie: Wayne Primeau (1.4M), Rhett Warrener (2.35M) and Marcus Nilson (1m), all of whom are healthy scratches more often than not.

And

- Sutter’s prepared to wave good-bye to Huselius, who is one of the top 5 UFA LWers available this summer and will likely be seeking his first big-time contract.