Flames Announce Qualifying Offers

It’s been a busy few days for the Flames; after selecting eight players in Sunday’s draft and acquiring T.J. Galiardi earlier today, the team also announced that it has tendered qualifying offers to nine players before NHL free agency commences on Friday.

The Flames sent qualifying offers to RFAs Mikael Backlund, TJ Brodie, Carter Bancks, Lance Bouma, Paul Byron, Greg Nemisz, Mark Cundari, Chris Breen and Chris Butler, of which Brodie, Backlund and Cundari are probably the most notable in terms of figuring into the team’s future.

I'm somewhat surprised to see Bouma on that list after the forward missed the entire year with ACL and MCL injuries, but if he's healthy there's little doubt the former Vancouver Giants captain is a useful player–where he fits on a Flames team that seems to be packed with players of his ilk at the moment remains to be seen, however. Breen, Byron and Nemisz are all likely being retained solely for AHL purposes, although the organization still seems to be high on Breen.

Akim Aliu, Bryan Cameron, Gaelan Patterson and Brady Lamb were not qualified by the Flames, which is somewhat shocking in Aliu’s case given how much Feaster and Co. seemed to love calling him up from Abbotsford last year whenever they felt the team was in need of a little extra face-punching.

by Hayley Mutch