Quoting: KenKingSucks
I'd rather be 31st in the league in GF/GP before taking on Bobby "hands made of glass" Ryan's contract. The Flames already have their fair share of overpaid players (eg. Troy Brouwer, Michael Stone) who can barely produce. I don't think that adding Ryan would be the missing piece the Flames want/need. I would rather target someone this off-season as a FA signing (E. Kane, JVR, Real Deal) or look to organizational depth to fill this void.
The benefit that Ryan 'might' bring to the Flames is overshadowed by his inconsistent numbers and several injuries. If I'm GM BT, i don't think the risk is worth the reward.
lol that's intense. So you're basically saying that you'd rather miss playoffs the next 4 years (would happen if your team has the lowest GF/GP in the league) rather than spend money and try to have a better offense?
What if none of JVR, Tavares, Kane, etc choose to sign in Calgary? You'd have a lot of "free cap space" for nothing (like Montreal this year). Salary cap should be 80 M$ next year and the Flames have around 17 M$ in cap space currently with 16 of the most important players already signed and only Jankowski, Gillies, Kulak and maybe Nick Shore to sign. Basically a full roster with about 15 M$ in cap space (and the situation is good looking forward with Brouwer, Stone and Frolik deals up in 2 years)
I am telling you, you might have a hard time to sign a better and more productive forward than Ryan at 5 M$ x 4 years on the UFA market. Of course, you go after Tavares, JVR, Kane, Neal, Stastny and Perron first but some of them won't be available because they will re-sign with their current team and others might just go to bigger markets and/or cup contenders.
If you're actually able to sign a good UFA forward (let's say Stastny), you could even afford to add Ryan at 5.0 and you could have :
Gaudreau-Monahan-Ferland
Tkachuk-Stastny-Ryan
Jankowski-Backlund-Bennett
Frolik, Foo, Shore, Lazar, Brouwer
If Ottawa was actually a big market and a rich franchise, I'd want them to keep Ryan and be the 5th-7th best forward, which would mean great scoring depth.