On Thursday morning, the Calgary Flames announced that they have re-signed rugged forward,
Rene Bourque to a new contract extension. The deal is believed to be for six years and worth $19.8 million, which will average $3.3 million per season. Bourque joins the group of players who were about to become unrestricted free agents that opted to sign with his current club.
Already in 2010, Bourque has already set career-highs in assists and points (23 & 41) and isn't very far away from his high in goals. Bourque will be looking to extend those career-highs after the break and if he remains healthy down the stretch, that shouldn't be too much of an issue. He's currently tied for third among Flames goal scorers this season and is now getting paid for it.
The Flames were definitely dealing with some cap issues when they dealt away
Olli Jokinen and
Dion Phaneuf, but since they opened up some of that space, the Flames were able to make a deal like this and have a reasonable look for the rest of their impending free agents. As of today, their 2011 salary cap hit is approximately $46.7 million for 15 players, which should leave the team around $10 million under the cap for eight players to round out their 23-man roster. According to my list, the Flames now rank fourth in the NHL for cap space already taken up for next season, behind Chicago, Columbus and Ottawa.
Well, the biggest thing about giving a player an extension like this is what kind of market value is the team looking at through the deal and it looks to be a reasonable deal, if Bourque can remain a 20-goal scorer. Bourque's deal is similar to
Dustin Brown's in Los Angeles, who has similar scoring numbers. It looks like they are in the ball park with this and if Bourque can bump up to be a 30-goal scorer in one of these seasons, he will definitely be considered a bargain.
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