Valji on the Flames draft and free agency plans

Onrait: Talking about the state of the Canadian teams going into the offseason, and we continue that with the Calgary Flames. Look at this list of key free agents: Johnny Gaudreau, unrestricted free agent, Matthew Tkachuk and Andrew Mangiapane restricted free agents. Gaudreau tied Jonathan Huberdeau for the second-most points in the National Hockey League this season. We welcome in Salim Valji – I imagine this Flames’ fan base, who enjoyed some real success this past season in the regular season… is everyone full of anxiety about the Johnny Gaudreau situation because he’s been very coy about exactly what he wants to do?

Valji: Yeah Jay, it’s a mystery that may require some investigative journalism but all parties are being silent including [Flames General Manager] Brad Treliving, Johnny’s agent Lewis Gross, Johnny’s not responding to my Instagram direct messages so unfortunately we do not really know a ton but it does look like he’s seriously mulling his options. His love for Calgary, Jay, is truly genuine, his family adores it here, his parents come often and speak highly of how he’s been treated but this is a life decision.

I don’t think this is necessarily a huge step back if, heaven forbid for Flames fans, Gaudreau decides to test the market and ultimately move on because I think you can replicate or rebuild your roster in a different way if Johnny ultimately decides to move on and the NHL is full of players that play on top lines but don’t necessarily look like they have top-line pedigree on paper – in Toronto you have players like Michael Bunting who was undrafted and he is a real success story. Over in Edmonton Kyler Yamamoto and Zach Hyman – of course with the Toronto Maple Leafs cemented himself as a top-line player.

I think the Flames, if they lose Gaudreau, it’s not necessarily the end of the world. They’ll obviously have to remake that top line a little bit, but you can plug and play certain types of players that play well with skill players – Elias Lindholm and Tkachuk are really phenomenal at what they do and if Johnny walks, I don’t think it’s the end of the world – perhaps the stats of the player coming in might not be as gaudy but Calgary I don’t necessarily think will take a huge step back quite like a lot of people fear they might if he ultimately decides to move on.

Onrait: We always try to see the silver lining on this show and that is a nice way to look at things for Flames fans who are feeling a lot of stress right now. Calgary has just under $27 million in projected cap space – other than dealing with the Gaudreau situation, what are some of the things this team needs to address this season.        

Valji: Well if Gaudreau does walk you have additional cap space to look at adding another depth forward; their forward group is already pretty good in terms of quality scorers up and down who can also play a defensive game but I’m most intrigued by Calgary’s defence because Chris Tanev, that warrior who played so well while very injured during the postseason might not be back until the new year and Oliver Kylington is in need of a new deal he was arguably Calgary’s most improved player – if not the most improved player in the NHL and then Eric Gudbranson and Nikita Zadorov are both coming off of career seasons and likely want to cash in on that on the open market.

I do think that Calgary will try to remake that second pairing and get a little bit meaner and tougher to play against and to have someone to compliment Tanev and that true stay-at-home defence pairing on the back end as opposed to having a more shifty and skilled player like Kylington playing top-four minutes. The truth is that Calgary might have three to four new blue liners next season so in addition to the usual depth forwards and acquiring people that can play responsibly up and down the lineup I think Calgary will likely have a very different looking bottom-four defence in the new year and that, after the Gaudreau situation is solved, will be Treliving’s next priority.

Onrait: Can I ask you about Tkachuk? The Kevin Fiala trade and then subsequent seven-year deal with the Los Angeles Kings last week – TSN Hockey Insider Craig Button brought it up, he said this is a potential comparable for Treliving and maybe for Tkachuk – do you see it being a problem to get Tkachuk to sign long-term with this team?

Valji: I think the fascinating thing is all eyes – or most of them – are on the Flames in the NHL world with whether they’ll re-sign Gaudreau because of the talent he has but if an American commits to a franchise long-term that tells Tkachuk that this Flames team is very capable of doing what it did last season which was surprise a lot of people and win the Pacific division.

So when you look at the potential ramifications if Gaudreau signs it probably signals to Tkachuk that Calgary is a long-term viable destination for consistent success and that goes a long way and I think it opens a lot of eyes around the NHL world if Johnny ultimately commits to the Flames. We already know that Tkachuk publicly has said he is very open to signing long-term with Calgary but the ripple effects of Gaudreau signing or not signing I think will play a huge role if Tkachuk views Calgary as a consistent, long-term contender for the Stanley Cup and of course that would certainly be helped if his line mate re-signs here.

Onrait: We brought up Treliving a lot, which makes sense, but Treliving and [head coach] Darryl Sutter are going into the final years of their deals – do you think they’re ultimately rewarded with new long-term contracts for the success that this team has had, particularly last season? What would it take for this team to blow everything up and star over again?

Valji: I think the Flames ownership group values stability a lot. Treliving came in here in 2014 and they had come off a stretch where they hadn’t really won a playoff series since that ’04 run and he’s done a lot of really good things. They have a really good decision-making process here - you look at the contract Gaudreau is coming off of, he was making less than $7 million as a 100-point player, Mangiapane is making less than $3 million and he’s a 35-goal scorer, the Lindholm and Noah Hannefin contracts look like steals.

The Flames have been very successful big-game hunters in the free agent market: they’ve brought in James Neal, which maybe didn’t work as they wanted but Blake Coleman and Jacob Markstrom had other offers and opportunities but they chose to come to Calgary so I think the Flames management has a really good structure and process in place. I imagine we’ll hear about Treliving re-signing here before long because the franchise values stability and I think Treliving and his colleagues have done very good work I just think they have to figure out how to get Calgary to that next stage where they are having consistent long playoff runs.

For Darryl Sutter I think his relationship with ownership is also very strong and to me I look at it as a blank slate for however long Sutter wants to be here, he will be here. I could see a situation where after the season coming up Darryl maybe decides to take a step back and promote Kirk Muller to the head coach position and Sutter has sort of a ‘coaching consultancy’ role like he did with the Anaheim Ducks. Either way, I strongly believe both Sutter and Treliving have very strong relationships with Flames ownership, and I don’t anticipate them blowing it up any time soon.