"General manager Jay Feaster likens the salary cap predicament of the Calgary Flames to an unfortunate game of Monopoly.
On Friday, the Flames resided in the jail space on the bottom left corner of the board. A day later, Feaster shipped defenceman Robyn Regehr ($4.02 million), disgruntled winger Ales Kotalik ($3 million), and a second-round draft pick in 2012 to Buffalo for defenceman Chris Butler (a restricted free agent with a cap hit last season of $850,000) and speedy centre Paul Byron ($550,000).
Suddenly, the Flames can look at the cap charts without sobbing in agony over the absurdity of it all. Suddenly, they have $7.6 million in cap space with 19 players under contract for next season.
"We've been in salary cap jail for some time," Feaster said Saturday afternoon via cellphone from the draft floor in St. Paul, Minn. "We've been so tight up against the cap.
"Where we are right now in the Monopoly game is we're 'just visiting.' We're not actually in jail anymore. We're on the 'just visiting' part of the Monopoly board."
Feaster certainly moved the pieces around the board over a productive 48 hours at Xcel Energy Center. He traded away one of his core players in Regehr. He sent Kotalik to Buffalo without the faltering forward collecting his $3 million (from the Flames.)
Perhaps most importantly, he locked down his top pending unrestricted free agent in Alex Tanguay (think Boardwalk or Park Place or, at the very least, Marvin Gardens on the open market) for five years with an annual cap hit of $3.5 million. Tanguay, 31, scored 22 goals and 69 points last season on the first line with Jarome Iginla.
"All things considered, we felt it was imperative that we get him," Feaster said. "Alex was an important part of the puzzle. Not only did we want him back, but obviously Jarome realÂly wanted him back."
