The Calgary Flames have allowed the June buyout period to come and go without making a single transaction. Despite experiencing a cap crunch, general manager Brad Treliving opted not to buy out any players.
Heading into the opening of free agency on Monday morning, the Flames have approximately $16.1 million in cap space available to them. But they also have to re-sign Matthew Tkachuk, David Rittich, Andrew Mangiapane and Sam Bennett to new contracts, with Tkachuk’s deal on its own likely eating up half of that available cap space.
But rather than dish out the proverbial big bags of money to depth defender Michael Stone to find work elsewhere, Treliving’s crew seems content to play wait and see – either they’re content to keep Stone around as veteran depth, or they’re waiting to see if other cap space possibilities open up before making decisions.