Calgary Flames Whomp Toronto Maple Leafs Plus Some Deadline News

In a moment where I should be celebrating the Calgary Flames’ 5-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, all I can do is panic but first a recap of the game.

Knocking the puck past Jonas Gustavsson tonight was Alex Tanguay, Olli Jokinen, Paul Byron, Blake Comeau, and Jarome Iginla.  Byron’s goal came by way of a penalty shot at 9:15 in the second after Dion Phaneuf hooked him on a break away.  Picking up points in assists were Olli Jokinen, TJ Brodie, Jarome Iginla, Alex Tanguay (2), Mike Cammalleri, and Mark Giordano.  Miikka Kiprusoff had 41 saves tonight, giving up only one goal in the 60 minutes, the only Leafs goal coming at 16:42 in the first.  While there were some dumb moments in the game, it was relatively penalty free game.

But tonight’s game is the least of my concerns.

In a mere 12 days, the Trade Deadline (February 27th)  will occur and it makes me nervous when thinking about the future of the Flames.  What possibly could the Flames do?  Who’s tied up with a NMC/NTC?

• Jarome Iginla
• Mike Cammalleri
• Alex Tanguay
• Matt Stajan
• Olli Jokinen
• Curtis Glencross
• Jay Bouwmeester
• Mark Giordano
• Cory Sarich
• Anton Babchuk
• Miikka Kiprusoff

So unless a team is willing to buy out the clause, who’s left on the table?

• Blake Comeau
• Lee Stempniak 
• David Moss
• Mikael Backlund*
• Tom Kostopoulos
• Roman Horak*
• Lance Bouma*
• Paul Byron*
• Tim Jackman
• Blair Jones
• Krys Kolanos
• Chris Butler
• Scott Hannan
• T.J. Brodie*
• Derek Smith
• Henrik Karlsson
• Leland Irving*

* denote entry level contracts and/or recent call ups from the Heat

Sorry Flames, but I don’t see many teams jumping at Moss or Jones with their injuries, it’d be foolish to let the youth go at this point, Smith was just resigned, and most of the contracts that are causing the Flames a headache are tied up in the claused contracts.  Flames want to rebuild, restructure, and rework the roster, how are they going to do that with the kind of contracts and money they have tied up?

It’ll be an interesting 12 days, to say the least.  Who knows, maybe there’s going to be a shake up, moving Karlsson to another team in return for a center, seeing as the Flames are struggling to keep them healthy.

But honestly, I’m even more interested to see what the Flamed do this summer.  Will there be any buyouts?  At the end of this season the Flames will finally be done buying out Nigel Dawes, but will there be more players on this list?  A buy out would save the Flames a bit of cash, guys like Stajan and Bouwmeester are not needed on the roster and really just eat up a ton of money for very little production.  You’re never going to find a team that’s foolish enough to take on their contracts and the Flames can’t keep them around and truly shake things up.  Yes, there are other players that need to go, but right now those to are in the forefront of my mind.

12 days and counting, what do you see happening?  Join us on the day of the Trade Deadline for a live chat.  It’s not only Flame For Thought participating, blog all across the Fansided Network will be linked up.  Make sure to stop by all day on the 27th and see what’s going on!

Go Flames Go!