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Calgary Flames retain Brendan Morrison with one-year, $1.25M deal

NHL Heritage Classic - Montreal Canadiens v Calgary Flames

during the 2011 NHL Heritage Classic Game at McMahon Stadium on February 20, 2011 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Mike Ridewood

From a sheer value standpoint, the Calgary Flames roster is not pretty.

Players who were once bargains are now making market value or better after Rene Bourque and Alex Tanguay received nice upgrades in salary. The Flames’ biggest star Jarome Iginla keeps chugging along even as people make semi-reasonable cases that he should be traded because of his age (34) and cap hit ($7 million per year through the 2012-13). The team is dishing out big money to should-be stars who don’t always fit the bill (Jay Bouwmeester at $6.68 million especially) and aren’t really skimping with their mid-level guys, either.

Some (myself included) would argue that the roster is dotted with mistakes made by former GM Darryl Sutter and current GM Jay Feaster. It’s tough to argue that the future is particularly bright for an expensive team* that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2008-09 and hasn’t won a series since their Cinderella run in 03-04. There aren’t a ton of promising young players who hint at a light at the end of the tunnel, but the Flames seem just good enough not to get dismantled in favor of a rebuilding mode.

With this perceived mistake-prone management in mind, every decent deal seems like a breath of fresh air. It’s an overstatement to say that the Flames are a significantly better team with Brendan Morrison in the lineup, but he was a solid last minute addition during the 2010-11 season. He scored a respectable 43 points in 66 games at a bargain price of $725K. Morrison was also a versatile player for Calgary, averaging two minutes of penalty kill time per game (third among Flames forwards, behind only Curtis Glencross and retired pivot Craig Conroy).

Flames GM Feaster valued his all-around usefulness and occasional scoring prowess, rewarding Morrison with a solid one-year deal worth $1.25 million. His base salary will be $850K but he can also make an additional $400K if he reaches incentives.

Again, Morrison isn’t really a game-changer. There’s also the possibility that his role will be significantly reduced if - though it’s a big if - Daymond Langkow comes back somewhat close to his pre-injury form in 2011-12. Matchsticks & Gasoline points out that the Flames might have been wiser to add a player at “replacement-level” (read: somewhere close to the league minimum) money, but it’s ultimately not an awful move by Calgary.

At least compared to some of their head-scratching transactions from the last few years, that is.

* The Flames currently rank fifth in the NHL in overall payroll and have been one of the league’s bigger spenders in recent seasons.