FLAMES GET THEIR GOALIE
Expansion draft list finalized
Brad Treliving made the decision easy for himself when he traded for Mike Smith on Saturday.
Not only did he improve the Calgary Flames by adding a No. 1 netminder — something they’ve searched for since, basically, the Miikka Kiprusoff days — the general manager was able to easily define the goalie his club was going to protect in the National Hockey League Expansion Draft.
The remainder of Calgary’s protected list was rather predictable.
Treliving stuck to the 7-3-1 script (seven forwards, three defencemen, and one goalie) and protected the following assets:
■ C Sean Monahan
■ C Mikael Backlund
■ C Sam Bennett
■ C/RW Curtis Lazar
■ LW Johnny Gaudreau
■ LW Micheal Ferland
■ RW Michael Frolik
■ D Mark Giordano
■ D Dougie Hamilton
■ D TJ Brodie
■ G Mike Smith
Among the list of notable unprotected players are forwards Troy Brouwer and Matt Stajan, who both come with hefty contracts; Brouwer’s cap hit is $4.5-million for three more seasons while Stajan has one more season left on his deal ($3.125-million). Winger Lance Bouma could also be selected by Las Vegas as he carrying a $2.2-million cap hit for one more season. Ditto for Freddie Hamilton’s and defender Matt Bartkowski’s $612,500 salaries which continue through 2017-18.
Alex Chiasson (RFA), Kris Versteeg (UFA), Michael Stone (UFA), Deryk Engelland (UFA), Dennis Wideman (UFA), and Brian Elliott (UFA) were also exposed.
“At the end of the day, the rules allow you to only protect so many players, we went through it, made a decision, and it’s certainly not a slight on anybody else,” Treliving said. “Any time you’re making those decisions, they’re always difficult but you make them. But this was the list we decided on and we move forward.”
The Vegas Golden Knights will select one player from each team to make up a roster of 14 forwards, nine defencemen, and three goaltenders and they must select a minimum of 20 players who are under contract. They also must reach 60 per cent of their salary cap through the Expansion Draft.
They have until 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday to make their final selections and the players selected by the Golden Knights will be revealed during the 2017 NHL Awards on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET).
“I think everyone took time today to review the list,” Treliving said. “The only team we can make a deal with right now is Vegas. So, once the lists came out today, they all hit their desks (Sunday) morning.
“We’ve had dialogue with our group and dialogue with Vegas.”
Like the rest of the league, there is still uncertainty for the Flames.
They need to solve their backup netminder situation and there are a few options. They could attempt to re-sign Chad Johnson on July 1 — if he hasn’t already inked a deal with the Coyotes, who acquired his rights in the Smith trade and are protecting him in the NHL Expansion Draft — or find a suitable backup like Mike Condon, Jonathan Bernier or Anders Nilsson. They could also wait and see if Jon Gillies or David Rittich wins the job out of training camp.
“We’ll see,” Treliving said. “We’re going to take a deep breath and regroup and kind of let the market play out. It’s going to be an interesting goaltender market. There’s going to be lots of goaltenders out there but not as many chairs for as many guys that are out there.
“As far as the backup position goes, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Now, the Flames and the rest of the NHL waits on phone calls from Vegas general manager George McPhee.
“You can look at all these lists all you want but there’s a realization that there’s players that may appear to be available, in terms of unprotected players,” Treliving said. “And it’s not exactly as it seems, so you just try to get a sense of what may be happening and what are actual situations that may be opportunities. And, again, if you find a player that’s not protected under the team, you have to make that very much worth Vegas’ while if there is already a deal in play. There are a lot of situations you review now that you have the lists.
“But I think it’s pretty straightforward, as we predicted.”