The Calgary Flames wasted no time in making sure that recently-acquired Matt Stajan is signed and ready to go for the 2010-'11 season and more. The Flames extended Stajan's contract by another four years and is reportedly worth $14 million. That equates to a salary cap hit of $3.5 million per season and he was also granted a no-trade clause in his deal.
Stajan has only been with the Flames for seven games since the trade from Toronto and in those games he has 2 goals and 2 assists, bringing his season total to 18 goals and 27 assists in 62 games between both cities. Going into Monday's restart of the NHL season, Stajan was ranked 79th in pool scoring, which is a new high ranking for him, which did come from some added ice-time between both Toronto and Calgary, so it will be interesting to see how he finishes a potentially career-high season.
The Flames haven't been the most frugal with their cap decisions in recent memory and with the signing of Stajan and Rene Bourque recently, they are quickly using up salary cap space, which they freed when they dealt Dion Phaneuf in the opposite direction of Stajan. With this new signing, the Flames now have a 2011 roster of 15 signed players for a cap hit of $46.7 million. Now, they have about $10 million (if the cap stayed the same for next season) for eight players, which isn't terrible, but this deal for Stajan suggests they have found their new number one centre.
In the days before the NHL trade deadline, it has become somewhat clear that Darryl Sutter is keen on making Stajan a top-end player on his team with this contract. Unless a deal is to move a big roster player before Wednesday afternoon, the Flames will be running with Stajan as their top guy for the foreseeable future, which just hangs another huge question mark in the same spot that Olli Jokinen had one of his own. Former Maple Leafs are usually tagged with a negative connotation, not only because of playing for Toronto, but I believe in being somewhat misrepresented as a well-scouted player. Stajan had plenty of upside, but I do hold this idea of making him a number one centre a little suspicious, but all that can really happen from here is to be proven wrong.
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