As expected, Troy Brouwer has been bought out by the Calgary Flames after clearing unconditional waivers today. The 32-year old forward had two years remaining on his contract, meaning the Flames will now carry a $1.5MM cap hit for the next four seasons. Brouwer is now free to sign with any other team as an unrestricted free agent.
Brouwer came to the Flames on July 1st, 2016 during a day which many teams around the league have come to regret. The free agent market that season was relatively weak, but several complementary players were given big dollars and term. Milan Lucic, Loui Eriksson, David Backes, and Andrew Ladd have all been including in trade speculation since, while others like Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen have been somewhat disappointing for their respective clubs. Brouwer, who was 31 by the time he played his first game in Calgary, actually looked like he might be a perfect fit for Calgary during his first game when he scored a short-handed goal and recorded three hits. The team had wanted to get more physical and bring some experience and defensive responsibility to their lineup, and Brouwer had a history of each.
Unfortunately, the offense would dry up for long stretches of 2016-17 and Brouwer would end up with just 13 goals and 25 points. Last season was even worse, as the veteran forward registered just six goals in 76 games and saw his playing time reduced to the lowest it has been his entire career. The writing was on the wall, and when the Flames went out and brought in James Neal, Derek Ryan, Austin Czarnik and Elias Lindholm to bolster their forward group, someone had to go. The team has plenty of young forwards ready to push for those limited minutes on the fourth line, just waiting for an opportunity to show what they can do at the NHL level.
More importantly perhaps than the roster spot is the $3MM in cap space created, which now allows the Flames to discuss a long-term extension for Noah Hanifin if they so choose. Before getting rid of Brouwer’s contract, the team might not have had the money to buy out several UFA seasons from Hanifin and likely would have needed to go with a bridge deal to keep the cap hit reasonably low. Now, with over $7.5MM in cap space they could lock up their young defender for many years to come and make sure he’s a part of the future. Hanifin remember already has three years under his belt, meaning he’ll become a UFA after four more seasons at the age of 25.
The cap space will also allow Calgary to be more flexible during the season, and perhaps be players once again on the trade market come February. After a disappointing 2017-18 season in which they missed the playoffs completely, the team should be at least competing for the postseason this time around. With a deeper forward corps and talented defensive group, they’ll have to hope for a healthy season from Mike Smith or for one of David Rittich or Jon Gillies to step up and show they can be a starter at the NHL level.
Brouwer meanwhile will likely land somewhere else quickly, as even with his reduced offensive impact he’s still well respected around the league as a bottom-six player. With what will now be an extremely reduced price tag, the veteran forward could sign a one-year deal to prove he can still be effective. He has played some center before, though his natural position is on the wing, and has a long history of penalty killing. His extremely low goal total can also at least somewhat be attributed to the huge drop in shooting percentage he experienced last season. After scoring on an above average 14.2% of his shots through the first decade of his career, Brouwer registered just a 7.6% shooting percentage this season. Though his shot creation numbers also fell dramatically, he could still be relied upon for somewhere around 10 goals and 25 points next season, a fine total for a fourth-line player—as long as he’s not making $4.5MM.
The NHL has things backwards. Young players earnings are capped and kept at a minimum, than as you get older and older you get significantly larger contracts that every team regrets at some point in the deal!? Someone will say a player at 30 is in their prime and yeah maybe, I’d still rather have the 20 something seasons on my favourite teams rosters than a player 30’s and on
So you would cap players salaries as the get older instead of capping entry level deals and let teams pay rookies what they feel they are worth?
Not at all, I wouldn’t cap any player and yes, I know if players cost tons of cash right off the get go teams would struggle more to balance budgets and ice a competitive roster. I don’t know the answers, I just think more often than not teams regret the last few years of most long term, heavy salaried deals they give to older/veteran players.
Happens in all sports. You pay premium for prime years and know that by the end it probably won’t be worth it. Devils never thought Ilya would be good at 43, Preds and Weber at 42, Hawks and Hossa at 43. Brouwer was never any of those players but he had a good year and Calgary took a gamble. That’s why they offer the buy outs. At least it’s not baseball where player is guaranteed money no matter what.
It does, but why does the league still consider prime years to be 30,31 and maybe 32? And more so, if you know your paying for what will be wasted years, why pay? Take a stand and stop giving out these large contracts, there are very few players that will be better let alone equal to the skills sets they had in their 20’s, IMO
But isn’t proving yourself at the NHL level part of this? I agree that some teams give out long term high AAV contracts to older players (many times role players) that don’t make sense but how many draft picks would ask for big money and then fizzle out?
For sure. I didn’t specifically mean entry level deals, more so the “next” contracts. When the player has proven themselves, and now you’re buying ages/seasons 21..ish up to 29,30. That’s where I’d spend the big $, personally
I think it’s going there. many young star players are no longer settling for bridge deals.
It’s not just hockey though. Most sports tend to do this. You don’t really hit UFA status until 26/27 in sports.
NFL signs an entry level deal at 21/22 that’s 4-5 years long
MLB you have to start accruing MLB time before you get to UFA. Most players are 25/26 I believe before that really happens.
It’s really a problem of development time and “short” peak time of careers.
Totally. Most athletes have short careers for the most part and to not see them maximize their earnings is a shame. Teams gain so much in the early parts of a players career, it would be nice to see these young people acknowledged for the financial assets they are
Blackhawks should jump all over him. With Krueger would make great PK team and keep Toews off the ice more and make him more effective offensively. Make the move Stan.