What is his prime going to be? Everyone peaks at different times, but there is this thing called data... We know that on average, a players peak or best years are usually in that 23-28 range. Are their outliers? Of course.. But he is now signed for a very small price for the duration that most players are in their prime.

He is also much more than a 3rd pairing guy. He has seen a lot of time on the top pairing with Giordano.

There is risk with any contract, but way less when buying a player for his prime rather than post-prime. RFA deals are getting bigger for a reason.

Re-visit this post in 2 years.

Our swedish youngsters keep getting fleeced.....can they finaly hire some better agents......all of them....

3 x 4,5M Rasmus, 3 x 4,5M

There are 7 d-men on that list ... one is the cost of a buyout.

Every team has 7 d-men on their 23 man cap roster ... but they only dress 6 each game.

Come on dude ... work on your chirps.

OK fine I'll bite ... then who replaces them?

An nhl defencemen... there are literally hundreds of them.

Stone makes 8 and Yelsen and Davidson makes 10... since flames have to sign there ufa’s and carry 6 top 4 defenders.

What we know about calgary’s Defence (for the moment.

Gio-andersson
Hanifin-valimaki
Kylington

Why waste 11m on ufa?

No idea, but can't believe the middling Flames are going to waste big cap of Brodie and Hamonic. It's just the nature of a cap league, the old and potential expensive get bumped and the teams hope that their youngsters who now are making much bigger money become "stars"

Leafs have three Dman UFAs...doubt if even one resigns with the Leafs. Holl and Dermot get raises in 2020/21, and the inexpensive Liljegren and Sandin get NHL jobs.

It's a risk at this moment in time, but it shows how much they trust him. Time will tell if he ends up like Alex Tuch or Cody Hodgson...

Yeah, this is a good stats vs tools argument. Realistically, scouts have said his skill set should translate to being an top 4 NHL player, I haven't watched him much, I believe he has gotten some tough minutes, but the underlying numbers don't look great, however when you think about signings, you are really should be betting on what you are going to get, not paying for what you got so far. So in general, the odds of a 23 year old D man improving enough to be worth over $4.5M are better uses of the money they hoping Hamonic can stay worth $5M+ into his 30's. Obviously you would like the numbers to indicate that this deal is already a home run, but if that were the case, then the flames probably couldn't get this deal.

His comment on Kuemper's extension has aged well.

does aniheim prone mean that someone has chronic choking?

So the Calgary defense core will be getting significantly worse next year? (unless there are some stud prospects that don't show up on their cap-friendly page).

I can't see them remaining nearly as good after replacing Hamonic + Brody with two "NHL defensemen" that are much more affordable.

They'll have to be cheaper downgrades I suppose ... which is fair.

Is Giordano still Norris quality this year?

Any contract under 5M seems to be a blessing these days...

Yeah Toronto has stuff to work out as well ... but it's manageable:

$5,000,000 x 2 years = Rielly
$2,000,000 x 3 years = Holl
$860,000 x 2 years = Liljegren
$860,000 x 3 years = Sandin
$4,000,000 x 7/8 years = Muzzin = Extra term in exchange for lower cap hit since he's 30 (plus money up front = 6 + 6 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = $32,000,000)
$2,000,000 x 2/3 years = Dermott = I don't think he gets more than Holl on a bridge (Holl plays 2 mins more per game + has a higher PTS/G + was a UFA)

Which leaves room to sign one UFA defensemen to play with Rielly:

$8,000,000 x 7 years = Alex Pietrangelo ????
$5,000,000 x 6 years = Travis Haminic ????
$4,000,000 x 6 years = Chris Tanev ????
$2,000,000 x 4 years = Radko Gudas ????

They could also trade for a top-4 RD with term:

Kapanen OR Johnsson + Timashov OR Moore + Hollowell OR Rasanen + Mid-Round Pick

Ideally they end up with something like:

Hyman - Matthews - Marner
Kerfoot - Tavares - Nylander
Mikeyev - Engvall - Kapanen
Timashov - Goat - T.Moore
(Korshkov - Spez - Bracco)
(Robertsn - Brooks - Petan)

Rielly - Pietrangelo
Muzzin - Sandin
Dermott - Holl
Liljegren

Andersen
Backup

His current talent does not justify this contract, but if his potential pans out this could be a big win for the Flames.

It's too much for a 3rd pairing guy - too much money and too much term.

He's a 3rd pairing guy by TOI:

http://naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20192020&thruseason=20192020&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&stdoi=oi&rate=y&team=CGY&pos=D&loc=B&toi=0&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL

And also by competition:

http://puckiq.com/woodmoney?season=20192020&tier=Elite&positions=d&team=cgy

He also gets the fewest D-zone starts among the Flames top-6 and the second most OTF starts, indicating some sheltering is going on.

Gamble here. Not an insane one, but it is a gamble.

Treliving betting on Andersson continuing to get better, borrowing from the strategy that's served Nashville well on their RFA defenders (Josi, Ellis). I like Andersson's progress so far. A good puck mover, has a pretty hard shot, and has a bit of bite to his game. I hope they play him a bit more with Hanifin this year to see if there's a fit there as the future top pairing for when Hamonic (likely) walks.