UFA RW Kyle Okposo

Right wing Kyle Okposo is probably the biggest name entering free agency in this position of particular need for the Flames. He’s 28, so he fits into the upper age group of a young-ish Flames team while still being a veteran of 7 NHL seasons and at the same time, has reliably put up points. He’s coming off of a very reasonable 5 year 2.8 million AAV cap and with his salary in real dollars coming in at 4.5 million this past season he will likely be looking for a substantial raise to carry him through the prime years of his career.

Okposo spent the majority of his time this season patrolling the right side with Nikolay Kulemin but also saw a substantial portion of minutes playing the left wing with John Tavares on the right. It didn’t seem to matter though as he was still able to put up the most points per 60 of the players we’ve looked at so far as well as playing the most even strength minutes.

While he was given a pretty decent zone start push he certainly didn't waste the opportunity, mildly pushing possession in the right direction and generating scoring chances. The only real knock on him is that he didn't really generate as many high danger scoring chances as his team mates, which is odd as given his size (6'0" 217 pounds) he could be right in there if he wanted to be.

On the other hand, this is pretty much who he's been through out his career. He's always gotten that zone start push, has played a lot of even strength minutes while scoring like a madman, and has generally pushed the puck up river while contributing scoring chances and high danger scoring chances relative to his team mates.

Like P.A. Parenteau, I’m looking at Kyle Okposo to slot in on the top line alongside Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, where I think he would be a great fit. He adds size, scoring ability, and decent possession metrics to the teams that he plays on. Unfortunately, with his ability and the lack of options in free agency this summer, he has likely priced himself out of the Flames budget.

Next up, Dale Weise .

All information from General Fanager, War On Ice, and Left Wing Lock.

by Matthew Granlund