“I’m a Calgarian now,” he says softly. “I believe in this team and this town. I don’t want to be anywhere else. This is home.”

However, due to the league’s new economic environment, Warrener understands that he may very well end up playing for another team next season. He’ll have to take a substantial pay cut on the $2.35 million he’s making this season.

“… at the end the day it’s out of your control. You’re a commodity. That’s the tough part of this business.”

Despite struggling this season and being a healthy scratch in 10 of the previous 12 games, the 32-year-old blueliner says he’s still got a lot of game in him. And he hopes it’s with the Flames.

“I hope so. I mean, I still feel good. I look around the league, and I still think I can play, still think I can contribute.”

As for his lack of playing time, Warrener says that he’s trying to be a professional. Even tough he’s taking it hard.

“Am I POed some days? Sure. Do I take it personally? Of course. Some guys take it harder than others. I take it hard. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to act.”

“You don’t want to be negative or disruptive. You just sit tight and wait for your chance.”

“If you’re a professional, if you were brought up the way I was, to care about the team first, then you there’s only one way to handle a difficult situation like this.”

The fight – Calgary has 66 points in 59 games played. They are tied with the Vancouver Canucks in the NW Division and are only a single point ahead of the Colorado Avalanche. Overall, they currently sit in 8th spot – the cusp of the Western Conference play-off bubble – tied in points with the Phoenix Coyotes, and with the aforementioned Avs (65), St Louis Blues (63) and Columbus Blue Jackets (63) hot on their tail. Fan and media expectations for the Flames have rarely been higher heading into the season, considering the quality and expense of the players on the roster. As such, there is considerable pressure on Sutter and Flames upper-management to succeed now. Put simply, missing the post-season is not an option.

The Cap – This season Sutter locked up a bunch of the Flames heavy lifters to long-term contracts. Robyn Regehr, Jarome Iginla, Miika Kiprusoff and Dion Phaneuf were all granted multi-year extensions, with a majority of them getting hefty raises to boot. So while the organization’s core is in place, Flames management faces the difficult task of re-signing or replacing the likes of Kristian Huselius, Damond Langkow, Craig Conroy, Stephane Yelle, David Hale and Owen Nolan in the off-season on a thread-bare budget. To give context to the severity of the situation, four of those players are currently top 6 forwards for the Flames. With about 48M already committed to next year and the cap purportedly rising to something between 54 and 58M, Sutter has roughly 6-10M in projected cap-space to work with. Or, in more qualitative terms: “not nearly enough”.

The UFAs – The primary assets of concern heading into the deadline are Huselius and Langkow. They both enjoyed career seasons last year, each scoring 77 points, and both are on pace to score 60+ points again this season. As such, both are in line for significantly larger deals this summer (Huselius makes 1.4M this year, Langkow 2.442M). They represent two thirds of the Flames #1 line right now (with Jarome Iginla) and each could likely command upwards of 5M/year on the open market come July.

The Conundrum – Sutter now faces the difficult decision of liquidating his attractive UFAs at the deadline, with the concurrent risk of hobbling the team’s chances of making the play-offs and/or achieving post-season success. Alternatively, he faces the equally unpleasant possibility of keeping Huselius and Langkow for the stretch drive, falling in the first or second round anyways, and then losing them for nothing in the summer.

Given that Calgary is going to need some relative bargains up front to cheaply but effectively fill out their forward roster in the near future, acquiring young but established players, plus the odd prospect and/or draft pick (read: draft day bargaining chips) at the deadline is likely an attractive option for the Flames GM. Whether Sutter deals one or both of Langkow/Huselius will depend on the nature of the packages offered. A roster player that is signed beyond this season to a relatively cheap salary + a decent prospect/pick might just do the trick. Example: Ottawa is said to be looking for more secondary scoring at the deadline. Kristian Huselius for Antoine Vermette or Chris Kelly+a draft pick might make sense for both teams.

The Salary Dumps – The Flames also have a lot of “roster fat” that Sutter would no doubt like to trim in order to increase that 6-10M in (potential) cap room next year. Players like Wayne Primeau (20GP, 2g-2a-4pts, -5), Marcus Nilsoin (28 GP, 2g-1a-3pts, +3) and Rhett Warrener (27GP, 0g-3a-3pts, -1) contribute little and fail to justify their respective cap-hits (1.4M, 1M and 2.35M). Each is signed beyond this season and each could conceivably be replaced by a farm-hand or bargain basement replacement (500k) without really effecting the club’s on-ice performance. With that in mind, Sutter may look to package one or more of these guys if he does decide to deal any of his other attractive pieces in the next 7 days or so.

Conclusions -

In short, the Flames:

- Have a lot of roster holes to plug next season and little cap space with which to do it.

- Have an urgent need to make the play-offs this year, with an inexorable tooth-and-nail stretch drive staring them in the face.

As such, they:

- Cannot trade for big contracts that extend beyond this year (unless they trade some of their own).

- Need to retain their high value contracts (ie: bargains, ie: Matt Lombardi @ 1.83M/year).

- Would like to get value for Langkow or Huselius now without doing too much damage to the roster and hobbling their post-season aspirations.

- Would like to deal away some of the “empty calories” that are bloating their total salary/cap hit.

Keep this stuff in mind when reading Calgary trade rumors in the media heading into next Tuesday. Whatever happens, I’m certain that this trade deadline is going to be a very interesting one for Flames fans.