- Locked up. I heard it was the possibility of being courted by Edmonton that scared him away from free agency.Luckily, I procrastinated a few hours and am now able to post something closer to the real thing:
Sources add that the deal is worth approximately $35 million for six years - or an average annual cap hit for the Flames of about $5.8 million per year beyond this season - and that it's heavily weighted in the early years of the contract and that Kiprusoff could retire after the fifth year and it wouldn't cost him significant dollars.
Initial reaction: Yay! Franchise type goalie and all that. The cap hit is comparable to Kipper's peers and therefore not unreasonable. In fact, it looks like a bit of an Iggy/Regehr discount considering what he might have commanded on the open market this coming off-season.
Other reactions: Uhhh...how are the Flames going to afford a team next year? If the purported cap hit for the Kiprusoff deal is accurate, that means Calgary has 25.65M tied up in Iginla (7), Regehr (4), Sarich (3.6), Tanguay (5.25) and Kipper (5.8) alone. Add in Warrener (2.35), Aucoin (4), Eriksson (1.5), Primeau (1.4), Yelle (1.4), Nilson (1) and Lombardi (1.817) and you have a 39.117M payroll without the likes of Phaneuf, Huselius, Langkow, Nolan, Conroy, Hale, Godard and Smith. That's anywhere from 12 - 15M, depending on the wherever the cap lands, to fill 8 roster spots. And I'm willing to bet Phaneuf will come in around 4.5M (minimum) when (if?) he gets re-signed. Meaning about 8 - 10M to fill 7 spaces, 3 or 4 in the top 6 forward area.
EDIT - scratch Yelle. This is the last year of his contract as well.
This could get concerning.
Update - Sutter confirmed the numbers during the presser.
