Free agency is now a little more than a month away from opening up and there are quite a few prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. While Calgary doesn’t have a lot of notable UFAs, they have several important RFAs to get under contract. Here’s a closer look at their free agent situation.
Key Restricted Free Agents: F Matthew Tkachuk – Tkachuk is among the class of high-end restricted free agents that will be coming off their entry-level contracts in July. After not progressing a whole lot in his sophomore year, he had a breakout campaign in 2018-19, recording 34 goals and 43 assists in 80 games while establishing himself as a legitimate top line power forward. Those players tend to get paid the big bucks and as a result, he will almost assuredly surpass the $6.75MM AAV mark that Johnny Gaudreau and Mark Giordano have (the highest on the team). Tkachuk is not eligible for salary arbitration.
G David Rittich – Rittich was one of the more pleasant surprises for the Flames in 2018-19. He didn’t fare too well the year before in his first extended look in the NHL and to no one’s surprise, he inked a one-year, prove it deal. He certainly proved that he can play at the NHL level, posting a respectable 2.61 GAA with a .911 SV% over 45 regular season appearances and went from the surefire backup to actually leading Calgary in goalie games. While there are still questions as to whether or not he can be a legitimate starting netminder, Rittich’s 2018-19 performance should still have him in line for a considerable raise over the $800K he made, especially with him being eligible for arbitration.
F Sam Bennett – Two years ago, Bennett signed a bridge contract as there were some question marks as to whether or not he could become a legitimate top-six forward to justify his fourth overall selection in 2014. Fast forward to today and there are still plenty of question marks. He has been quite consistent offensively over the past three seasons, picking up 26 or 27 points in each campaign. However, he was also their best performer in the postseason and seems to be finding his niche as more of a physical player than a scorer. There’s still some value in that and with the flashes of upside he has shown over parts of his career, it’s likely that Calgary would like to give the arbitration-eligible winger another chance.
Other RFAs: F Spencer Foo, D Josh Healey, F Curtis Lazar, F Ryan Lomberg, F Andrew Mangiapane, G Mason McDonald, F Brett Pollock, F Alan Quine, F Kerby Rychel, D Rinat Valiev
Key Unrestricted Free Agents: G Mike Smith – The other half of Calgary’s goalie tandem, Smith was rather inconsistent in 2018-19. He lost the starting role to Rittich for a while but recovered it in time for the postseason and bore the brunt of their defensive struggles against Colorado. Now 37, Smith will be hard-pressed to land a starting role for next season but for teams looking for a veteran that can handle a larger workload that a typical backup, he’ll certainly be considered. A return to the Flames in that role shouldn’t be ruled out.
F Garnet Hathaway – After being more of a depth player in 2017-18 (and a minor league recall before that), Hathaway established himself as a regular on the fourth line and provided a reasonable scoring touch in that role, picking up a career-best 11 goals in 76 games while leading the team in hits by a significant margin as well. That type of combination will garner him some interest on the open market if the Flames can’t strike a deal to keep him around before then.
Other UFAs: D Oscar Fantenberg, F Tyler Graovac, F Anthony Peluso, D Dalton Prout, D Matt Taormina
Projected Cap Space: As things stand, the team has roughly $68.5MM committed to 19 players for next season, per CapFriendly. Depending on what the increase to the Upper Limit is, they’re going to have roughly $13MM to $15MM to work with. That’s the good news. The bad news is that re-signing their own restricted free agents will eat up most of that before even looking towards adding another goalie. As a result, GM Brad Treliving is going to need to make a trade or two to try to free up a bit of cap space over the next month or so.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
They can get an asset and free up space moving one of their solid D players. Brodie makes the most sense.
Flames fans think Brodie is worth a mid 1st. When the most they can get for him is a mid 2nd they would riot. They also believe Bennett has plenty of value. He is more of a bust to other people around the league, but to flames fans he is nearly untouchable and the 2nd coming of Crosby. Most others see him on par with Yakupov, bust city.