Flames Fans Rejoice

Excitement in Calgary Growing

The Flame Faithful are being rewarded with mid-season pickups Steven Stamkos and Bryan Rust. "We have been playing great this year and are looking forward to seeing how well our new top line of Stamkos, Rust & Fiala can gel together."

Stamkos is the latest addition after being traded for Chicagos 1st, Gusev, and Chinakov. "I get wanting your first so you can get your rebuild on. We were in the same position last year. Were not incredibly excited with this year's crop of prospects and are in pretty good shape prospect-wise. Chinakov is a roll of the dice and while we would have liked to have seen his progression for us, our wings are flooded with talent. As for Gusev, he was a great 6th round pick for us but it's unfortunate that because of his age he got stuck with a two-year UFA expiring contract as over 4M as his first deal. His lack of defense wasn't fitting in as well and we needed to move his contract to be able to sign Stamkos and create a little cap space."

"When asked if he was done dealing, Flames GM threw his hands up, "who knows, we very well could be. I'm not sure what else we're willing to move and finding the right guy with the right cap hit might be a bit of a challenge at this point. Both Stamkos and Rust are not strictly rentals as they are both signed next year as well and trading for strictly a rental doesn't have the same appeal to us."