On the Calgary Flames and Johnny Gaudreau …
Scott Cruickshank of the Calgary Herald: Flames assistant GM Craig Conroy on the Johnny Gaudreau and the Calgary Flames situation.
“Brad and Lewis and Johnny are working through the contract right now,” Conroy told Flames TV. “Is it done as quick as we’d all like? No, it’s not. But you know what? It’s positive. Right now we’re going to do something here, hopefully in the next few days and in the week to come, and we’ll get something done and Johnny will be back in Calgary.
“Hopefully we can come to some common ground soon and get him where he belongs in Calgary.”
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 on Flames RFA winger Johnny Gaudreau. Since Gaudreau has only two years in the league, he has no rights and he can’t sign an offer sheet. The only leverage he has is to stay home.
“He wants a lot of money based on two really good years. His initial ask is believed to be over $8 million a year. I think the Flames want to do this under 7, and try to keep it more somewhere between Sean Monahan at 6.375 and Mark Giordano at 6.75. Maybe it’ll go higher than that. I don’t know.
“But it’s just a negotiation and he’s had a full camp with Team North America. There hasn’t been any real dialog for quite some time, and that’s not unusual with a lot of these restricted free agents. I would imagine they’ll get something done, but both sides are going to have to come off their mark a little bit here, and we’ll see how dug in they get.
