[Report] Multiple Players Will Not Extend in Calgary, Expected to be Traded

[rekker]

9 minutes ago, Angry Goose said:

Zadorov is exactly what the Canucks need despite being a pending UFA

Would love Backlund for the third line as well. 

[Petey Castiglione]

[Canuck Surfer]

I bet Conroy 'demanded' a rough / exact idea what it would take to re-sign his onslaught of potential UFA's next summer?  Publicly stated he did not want to lose players. By making demands, lost any ground made by releasing Sutter. Wanted to overcommit guys now.

 

They told him to stuff it.

 

Now he has to trade all of 'em...

 

 

I also think trading Toffoli now was a mistake.  Could have got lots more at the deadline.

 

 

 

 

[mll]

28 minutes ago, Canuck Surfer said:

I bet Conroy 'demanded' a rough / exact idea what it would take to re-sign his onslaught of potential UFA's next summer?  Publicly stated he did not want to lose players. By making demands, lost any ground made by releasing Sutter. Wanted to overcommit guys now.

 

They told him to stuff it.

 

Now he has to trade all of 'em...

 

 

I also think trading Toffoli now was a mistake.  Could have got lots more at the deadline.

 

 

 

 

 

Calgary looks to have had a divided room.  At the end of the season, before Sutter was fired, Toffoli said he'd want to extend - talked of how much he liked it there.  He was one of the few that spoke highly of Sutter who he had in LA.  

 

Waiting till TDL and who knows if it won't just continue the tensions of last season when it's now known he wants out.  Hard to also really build something when there are players who don't want to be there.  

 

[-Vintage Canuck-]

 

[Provost]

I am happy to take Tanev back instead of overpaying in the free agent market, Zadorov is another good option.

No idea if Calgary is going to try a quick retool or tear it down if they are losing that many players.  If they are tearing it down, they could actually get decent assets for both those guys if they retained 50% since they are both just one year left.  A contender would be dumb not to pick those guys up at half price.

[RWJC]

Noah Hanifin Reverses Course, Open To Extension In Calgary

September 13th, 2023 at 12:44pm CST • By Josh Erickson

 

Speaking with reporters, including Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg at the NHL’s media tour in Las Vegas, Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin said he’s “absolutely” willing to consider an extension with the team.

 

Hanifin, 26, was unwilling to sign an extension in Calgary at the beginning of the offseason, according to reporting from TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. Along with Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm, who have expressed a conditional willingness to extend depending on the team’s performance this season, Hanifin is slated for unrestricted free agency next summer. He’s coming off a 2022-23 season in which he played 81 of 82 games, registered seven goals and 31 assists for 38 points, recorded a 53.0% Corsi for at even strength, and averaged a career-high 22:39 per game. LeBrun said earlier this summer Calgary was likely to trade Hanifin – something that didn’t come to fruition, and he’s now projected to start 2023-24 alongside potential captaincy candidate Rasmus Andersson on the team’s top pairing.

 

If they do extend him, it certainly won’t be on a discount – as is the likely scenario with Backlund and Lindholm. With extensions unlikely to be reached before the start of the season, Evolving Hockey projects an eight-year, $7.5MM AAV deal for Hanifin to remain in Calgary. Their model also predicts an eight-year extension at $8.4MM per season for Lindholm, but recent reporting from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests that figure will be closer to $9MM if Lindholm does extend. For Backlund, they predict a four-year deal at around $5.5MM per season. For a team with little to no salary cap flexibility this summer, is extending all three even financially feasible if the players remain open to it?

 

The short answer is barely. CapFriendly currently projects the Flames with roughly $35.5MM in cap space for the 2024-25 season with a roster size of just 11 players, assuming the Upper Limit rises from $83.5MM to $87.5MM as projected. Taking the figures above means re-signing all three of Backlund, Hanifin and Lindholm would cost around $22MM, bringing that cap space figure to $13.5MM with a roster size of only 14. That would involve filling out the rest of their roster with contracts averaging less than $1.5MM AAV apiece, and it’ll likely take significantly more than that number to retain other pending UFA defenders like Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov as well as re-signing pending RFA forward Dillon Dubé.

 

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by RWJC

[HorvatToBaertschi]

8 minutes ago, RWJC said:

Noah Hanifin Reverses Course, Open To Extension In Calgary

September 13th, 2023 at 12:44pm CST • By Josh Erickson

 

Speaking with reporters, including Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg at the NHL’s media tour in Las Vegas, Calgary Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin said he’s “absolutely” willing to consider an extension with the team.

 

Hanifin, 26, was unwilling to sign an extension in Calgary at the beginning of the offseason, according to reporting from TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. Along with Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm, who have expressed a conditional willingness to extend depending on the team’s performance this season, Hanifin is slated for unrestricted free agency next summer. He’s coming off a 2022-23 season in which he played 81 of 82 games, registered seven goals and 31 assists for 38 points, recorded a 53.0% Corsi for at even strength, and averaged a career-high 22:39 per game. LeBrun said earlier this summer Calgary was likely to trade Hanifin – something that didn’t come to fruition, and he’s now projected to start 2023-24 alongside potential captaincy candidate Rasmus Andersson on the team’s top pairing.

 

If they do extend him, it certainly won’t be on a discount – as is the likely scenario with Backlund and Lindholm. With extensions unlikely to be reached before the start of the season, Evolving Hockey projects an eight-year, $7.5MM AAV deal for Hanifin to remain in Calgary. Their model also predicts an eight-year extension at $8.4MM per season for Lindholm, but recent reporting from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests that figure will be closer to $9MM if Lindholm does extend. For Backlund, they predict a four-year deal at around $5.5MM per season. For a team with little to no salary cap flexibility this summer, is extending all three even financially feasible if the players remain open to it?

 

The short answer is barely. CapFriendly currently projects the Flames with roughly $35.5MM in cap space for the 2024-25 season with a roster size of just 11 players, assuming the Upper Limit rises from $83.5MM to $87.5MM as projected. Taking the figures above means re-signing all three of Backlund, Hanifin and Lindholm would cost around $22MM, bringing that cap space figure to $13.5MM with a roster size of only 14. That would involve filling out the rest of their roster with contracts averaging less than $1.5MM AAV apiece, and it’ll likely take significantly more than that number to retain other pending UFA defenders like Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov as well as re-signing pending RFA forward Dillon Dubé.

 

 

This is obviously such a cover-up. We all know they want out. Calgary hasn't found a fit yet and don't want the media to make a big deal about it. All 3 will be shipped when either Calgary find the right price, or they become desperate to recover any kind of return to the closest bidder. 

[RWJC]

Thanks for the merge. @-Vintage Canuck-

[RWJC]

21 minutes ago, HorvatToBaertschi said:

This is obviously such a cover-up. We all know they want out. Calgary hasn't found a fit yet and don't want the media to make a big deal about it. All 3 will be shipped when either Calgary find the right price, or they become desperate to recover any kind of return to the closest bidder. 

Yeah it seems a bit like it. 
Easy to use the offseason to distance yourself from fans and media, but with camp approaching it seems like a preemptive statement to pacify things. 
Who knows, maybe CGY convinces these guys they can make a go of it.

If they bomb and fortunes change, Tanev is in the last year of his deal…just not sure if it’s the direction mgmt would want to take but I bet our new Captain would be all over it.

 

Can envision BOS making a hard push for Lindholm or Schieffle. Hanifin going east somewhere. 
Backlund being picked up by a contender at TDL. 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by RWJC

[RWJC]

No Extension Talks Scheduled For Mikael Backlund And Oliver Kylington

September 13th, 2023 at 9:00pm CST • By Brian La Rose

While there has been some optimism in Calgary regarding the possibility of both Elias Lindholmand Noah Hanifin signing extensions, things appear to be more of a wait-and-see approach when it comes to Mikael Backlund.  His agent J.P. Barry told TSN’s Salim Valji that there are currently no plans for discussions about Backlund or teammate Oliver Kylington. 
 

Instead, the plan is to wait and evaluate how the season progresses before holding any sort of meaningful contract negotiations.

Backlund has spent his entire 15-year career with Calgary who drafted him in the first round (24th overall) back in 2007.  The 34-year-old is actually coming off his best season offensively, one that saw him put up 19 goals and 37 assists in 82 games.  For his career, he has 492 points in 908 games and he has expressed a desire to reach the 1,000-game mark in a Flames uniform.

 

Backlund has one more year remaining on his deal, a pact that carries a $5.35MM AAV and a 21-team no-trade clause.  A report surfaced last month that noted trade offers for the middleman had been particularly light in spite of his breakout year so it appears Calgary will go into the season with him anchoring the second line.

 

As for Kylington, the fact that no discussions are planned shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.  Last month, the blueliner revealed the reason for his season-long absence was due to things going on with his family which caused mental and psychological problems.  Having missed that much time, it makes sense for both sides to wait and see how things go early on before pondering the idea of an extension.  Like Backlund, the 26-year-old will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

 

When he took over as GM, Craig Conroy indicated that he wanted to avoid a situation where he could lose a key player without any return by seeing them walk in free agency like Johnny Gaudreau did in the 2022 offseason.  That played a part in them moving Tyler Toffoli, another pending UFA, to New Jersey earlier in the offseason.  However, with Lindholm, Hanifin, Backlund, and Kylington all appearing to want to see how things go at the start of this coming season before deciding on their willingness to extend, he won’t be getting any further clarity for a little while longer.