Well you have to hand it to Darryl Sutter and the Flame’s ownership group, they gambled at a sleepy draft and won big.
Sources were telling TSN that the Flames have taken the prized fish off the UFA market about 18 hours before the gun is fired in signing Jay Bouwmeester to a five year contract. Further details on the contract were not released at the time of this article.
Assuming the TSN rumour is legit it vindicates a pretty minor move in terms of Sutter, giving up a player that they knew they wouldn’t sign and a third round pick acquired on day one of the draft for moving down three spots. Having said that, a swing and a miss would have been a loss of asset and some fingers would have been pointed.
The Flames were well aware that Bouwmeester had the Flames near or at the top of his list, but wanted to avoid the frenzy of July 1st and sit down with the quiet minute muncher one on one, selling him on the virtues of Calgary. Free agent day can get hectic and with offers swirling it comes down to the fastest phone call and not necessarily sanity to get deals done. Sutter felt the Flames could land Bouwmeester by hitting on the rest of his list; closer to home, a playoff team, and a team that has enough star power to avoid him having to carry the load himself.
Clearly, the Flames wouldn’t have been the biggest money offer on the table, as silliness tends to rule the day on Canada’s birthday, greatly risking one of these insane offers swaying the defenseman to forgo the intangibles that the Flames felt they had.
With Bouwmeester in the fold the Flames now boast three defensemen that will garner serious attention for Canada’s blueline in Vancouver in February. Bouwmeester’s ability to play either the left or right side sets up a great situation for Brent Sutter with the ability to pair him with Phaneuf to go on the offence or Robyn Regehr if they want to hold a lead and shut things down. Much like the Ducks in recent years with Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger there will be many a game where at least one of the three will be on the ice at all times. Add in a new Sutter defensive system and the Flames should move back into the top five in the league in goals against.
Five years ago July 1st was about players like Martin Gelinas, and heck that made Flames fans happy. Tomorrow the Flames likely won’t have a big signing the announce but the night before the reeled in the number one player available.
Without risk you rarely see reward.
How long until training camp?
