ST. PAUL — The biggest question facing Jay Feaster when he took over as general manager of the Calgary Flames was, how would he deal with possibly the worst salary cap situation in the National Hockey League?
He had inherited from former GM Darryl Sutter the largest committed payroll in the NHL (over US $56.7 million), with the highest number of no-trade or no-movement clauses (12) in all of hockey.
So Featser began chipping away at the foundation here in St. Paul, trading two ageing veterans in Robyn Regehr (31) and Ales Kotalik (32) — both with no-trades and a combined $7.02 in cap space — for dirt-cheap youngsters Chris Butler and Paul Byron.
Butler, 24, is restricted free agent defenceman who made $850,000 last season. Byron, 22, is a 5-9 centre with eight NHL games under his belt. He makes $555,000.
“We’ve been in salary cap jail for some time,” said Feaster. “This gives us an opportunity to have some breathing room and have a fresh start and at the same time to get younger.
“Chris Butler, we believe, is going to play for us right now, and Paul Byron is knocking on the door.”
It also opened the door to re-signing Alex Tanguay to a five-year contract, with an annual cap hit of $3.5 million.
“He’s going to be with us for a long time,” said Feaster, who had perused the free agent market and did not see a replacement for Tanguay’s 22 goals and 69 points last season. “The guy with the biggest smile on his face in Calgary today isn’t Alex, it’s Jarome Iginla. He’s a guy Jarome has been very clear on that he wants him back, and he wants to play with him.”
Feaster will still have room to do some shopping when the free agent market opens, a luxury few believed the Flames would have even a few days ago.
“This is the first time in a long time that we have options as we move into July 1.”
Of course, freeing up that kind of cap space comes at a cost, and that is the loss of assistant captain Regehr, the rugged, honest blue-liner whom has played all of his 826 NHL games and 11 seasons with Calgary.
“He has been a tremendous hockey player for our club,” Feaster said over the fence at the draft. “It’s difficult when you trade a core player, but at the same time, we’ve been in salary cap jail for some time. This gives us an opportunity to have some breathing room and have a fresh start. And at the same time to get younger.”
Regehr thought long and hard before waiving his no-movement clause to go to Buffalo, while the depleted Kotalik may be happy to go to the team that gave him his NHL start, drafting him in Round 6 back in 1998.
“It was never about, ‘I don’t want to come to Buffalo,'” Buffalo GM Darcy Regier said of Regehr. “He talked to a number of (former Buffalo) players, Jordan Leopold, Rhett Warrener… You know, from the outside, you may have one image (of Buffalo). But when players come there, they love it there.”
As for Kotalik, “He can play in the National Hockey League,” Regier said. “We expect him to come into camp and compete for a position. We won’t buy him out.”
