I miss Ballard. He was constantly in AV's doghouse but he never complained and would do whatever was asked of him, stand up for teammates, and block shots.
He'll never win a Super Bowl with that work ethic. Imagine a guy like Brady, Manning, or Wilson needing a clause in their contract to watch 4 hours of tape a week. They're going to regret that contract a lot sooner than later.
Skating is useless if you're too stupid to play defence. Scott Stevens in his prime wouldn't be able to make up for how bad Klingberg is defensively. We're far better off bringing in a defenceman who can actually play acceptable defence.
He's as bad as guys like Barrie and Rielly. You simply can't have a guy like that in your lineup if you want to succeed. It makes it harder to hold the rest of your D accountable when you tolerate a guy like this playing like complete trash.
He's also bad enough where he can improve a fair amount and still be a liability. It's not worth the risk, and it sure as hell isn't worth trying to teach while he's in the NHL.
There are plenty of guys his age who understand how to play defence. If he hasn't learned how to avoid being a complete liability at lower levels, it's unlikely that he'll ever get to a point where his defensive play meets an acceptable standard for an NHLer.
I'd be fine with adding a sweetener on our end. Retaining salary of any kind longer than one season is completely unacceptable under any circumstances though.
Bo likely gets done after a decision is made on Miller so they can figure out what kind of structure works. Wouldn't be surprised if there's already a handshake agreement.
I think you'd have to move Captain Clown somewhere that he wouldn't be in a leadership position after it became public knowledge how much of a scumbag he was with the Beach report. After unloading the turtle and the midget, I doubt Calgary is in a hurry to bring in another guy with character issues.