Versteeg Re-Signs in Calgary

The Calgary Flames kept forward Kris Versteeg from hitting the unrestricted free agent market this weekend by signing him to a new 1-year deal, reportedly worth $1.75 million for the coming season.

Versteeg was more than capable to handle some of the leadership roles for this young Flames team, as the 31-year old helped lead by example in the 2017 season, making him into a pool worthy forward.  In 69 games, he scored 15 goals and 37 points, making him 153rd among all forwards and certainly worth another look when the draft rolls around this fall.

The veteran did miss some time in the 2017 season to a couple of injuries, including a stretch on the Injured Reserve with a groin problem, but for the most part, he has been able to stay fairly healthy year after year, so he does remain a pretty good bet, when it comes to hockey pool time and you're looking for a good depth forward to compliment your side.

The Flames have been doing a good job keeping their forward group together while putting together, what looks to be a stronger back end, when you add Travis Hamonic and Mike Smith to the mix.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Johnny Gaudreau	6.750	Mark Giordano	6.750	Mike Smith	5.667
Sean Monahan	6.375	Dougie Hamilton	5.750	Thomas McCollum	0.613
Troy Brouwer	4.500	TJ Brodie	4.650
Michael Frolik	4.300	Travis Hamonic	3.857
Mikael Backlund	3.575	Rasmus Andersson	0.787
Matt Stajan	3.125	Oliver Kylington	0.762
Lance Bouma	2.200	Matt Bartkowski	0.613
Kris Versteeg	1.750
Matthew Tkachuk	0.925
Mark Jankowski	0.925
Daniel Pribyl	0.925
Hunter Shinkaruk	0.902
Emile Poirier	0.894
Freddie Hamilton	0.613

You could certainly make the argument that the Flames could tighten up their back-up goalie spot, maybe four or five forward spots, while a couple of blueline spots are up for grabs in training camp.  Nevertheless, this projected 23-man roster, as of today, still has about $6.1 million left in cap space to play around with, but that's a lot of spots for so little money for improvements.  The Flames have some decisions to make and maybe those decisions don't come until training camp.  We'll see.