Today being June 30th, it's the final day of NHL players expiring contracts. The Flames had a lot of players out of contract this year and it was widely assumed that on the back of a third year in a row out of the playoffs, most of them would be on their way. Yesterday, though, they re-signed Cory Sarich, Lee Stempniak and Blake Comeau. I think this caught a few people a little off guard, especially in light of the acquisition via trade of Washington's Dennis Wideman on Thursday afternoon. Pictured on the right, with a little help from Capgeek is the 2012-13 Flames as they stand in my eyes. I've made Matt Stajan and Anton Babchuk, and their combined $6m salary disappear. If they could actually do that, they've roughly $11m to spend tomorrow on one player. That's a fairly hefty amount to go whale hunting for the big ticket forwards that are out of contract. They'd have to heftily overpay to get their man (see Wideman's new $5.2m per year salary) since Calgary is not at the top of free agents lists of places to come and play, which is stupid since it's a lovely (if a bit pricy) place to live. So far, the major casualty of the offseason appears to be Olli Jokinen. The first time they traded for him, it pretty much set the wheels in motion for the team of 2008-9 to completely run aground, and end up in the lack of postseason action we've noticed in the last three years. The trade to get rid of him landed them with the useless Ales Kotalik (banished to Buffalo), and then two years ago they shocked the world by signing Olli back again. His second stint was much more productive; his lower salary lowered expectations, but there was no middle ground among the support when he arose in conversation. Whereever he ends up, he is a boon for GIF makers.
