Trade rumors are usually a fun exercise in toeing the line between truth and fantasy. With all the talk of late about how Rene Bourque was a possible trade candidate in Calgary, it turns out the rumors of his availability were more fiction than anything else.
Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun hears from Flames GM Jay Feaster that trading a guy like Bourque with his kind of contract is a lot more difficult to do these days than it would’ve been before the salary cap.
So you mean that trading Bourque for Kyle Turris isn’t going to happen? Well, shoot. There goes all those hopes and dreams.
According to CapGeek.com, Bourque’s got four seasons after this one with a $3.3 million cap hit. While Bourque is a solid power forward with a goal scoring knack, that kind of deal demands that he be a 30-goal threat each and every year to justify that kind of money. Becoming a 40-point per season guy makes a contract like that a nightmare to have on your cap.
That said, Bourque is one of a few guys on the Flames capable of being a consistent scorer and dealing him off if they couldn’t get a solid return would be even more troubling for the moribund Flames. As far as we can tell, Jay Feaster would like to keep his job rather than give it away. If Bourque is going to be traded, he’ll have to make it a mutually beneficial deal unlike say... The Dion Phaneuf trade.