Another One Bites the Dust
Another chapter in the book of the infamous Dion Phaneuf trade has been written as the Calgary Flames have rid themselves of yet another disappointment.
Hagman was plucked by the Anaheim Ducks on re-entry waivers Monday morning, seemingly to the praises of the Flames faithful.
The move saves the Flames just under $1.5 million in cap space for the rest of this season and as noted by @RossCreekNation on twitter, it saves the ownership a little cash as the cap space is not exactly needed this year.
It also frees up another contract space for the Flames to use to sign Krys Kolanos or perhaps another unsigned prospect.
In my opinion, Hagman was misused in his entire time in Calgary. Just take a look back at his track record with Dallas and then Toronto... when used efficiently, he produced. He was never going to score 27 goals in Calgary, but if he was accepted as a 15-goal scorer that was acquired in a terrible, desperation trade, he would have been more widely accepted.
All in all, he wasn't a good fit in Calgary.
But, again, getting nothing for an asset with value (and footing half the bill to boot) continues to add to my disappointment of Jay Feaster. Many will think just getting rid of Hagman, the contract and cap space is enough, I disagree with that notion and when Niklas Hagman proves worthy of decent NHL minutes while in Anaheim, I believe we'll all look back at this day and wonder why Feaster wasn't able to muster up anything for the frustrated Flame.
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agree with everything you’ve said here, scott. only thing I’ll mention is that hagman is no longer on the team because the owners wanted to save money and that is the only reason. until pl3 is waived you won’t be able to convince me otherwise.
by Justin Azevedo on Nov 14, 2011 10:40 AM PST reply actions
Yup, pretty much agree with everything here. Really two ways to think about it…
1: Hagman wasn’t going to really play here again so any cap space (for later) is a good thing and better to pay half for nothing then full price for nothing
2: Hagman is a better hockey player then PLLL or the Greek… why the eff wasn’t he being played?
I hold more with “2”. Horrible, horrible, horrible asset management. I blame Butter personally… healthy scratching Hagman couldn’t have done his trade value any favors. Maybe he plays him (even with the fourties) and he’s good enough to attract interest (or even make the full waiver pick-up more likely. He was sat for IMO obviously inferior hockey players, worst case scenario is that we iced a better line-up.
I agree with everything here, except for the sudden bizarre fascniation with Krys Kolanos in the flogosphere.
This is an ugly move, essentially paying another team to take a player off our hands. But at least it’s in the right spirit: we now have one less old overpaid player on the team.
Or to put it another way: at no point in the future are we going to look at this and say, “Why did we let Hagman get away from us?”
old o.O
He’s turning 32 in three weeks.
Could be that he will fail to earn a spot in Anaheim, but I think it’s likely he’ll be a serviceable NHLer for a few years yet.

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