from Randy Sportak of the Calgary Sun,
“You’re planning for things. You’re aware of things,” Treliving said. “You can’t operate in a world of fear, thinking the sniper’s behind the bush, but you also have to be wise to the ways of the world. And I think we’re in a new world.
“You’re always planning for beyond the next season, planning for things on the horizon and how you’re going to address them.”
In Calgary’s case, the first step would be to sign Gaudreau and Monahan before they become RFAs, which could happen on Canada Day 2016.
To protect themselves, though, they’re making sure they have enough salary-cap space.
As of now, forwards Jiri Hudler and David Jones (both with US$4-million salary-cap hits) are in the final year of their contracts. Same thing goes for goalies Jonas Hiller ($4.5 million) and Karri Ramo ($3.8 million) and defencemen Mark Giordano ($4.02 million) and Kris Russell ($2.6 million).
They won’t be able to — or maybe even want to — keep all those players in the fold beyond next season.
To think, for the past couple of years, the Flames have openly talked about taking on salary for an asset with all their salary-cap space.
“It’s a good thing we didn’t do that,” Treliving admitted. “We’ve hit that stage now (with less cap space on the horizon), and it’s by the play of those young players, they’re going to need new contracts.
“We’ve positioned ourselves where we’ve not got into a pinch.”
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