Flames Sign Michael Stone

A few months ago (August to be exact) Calgary bought out the remaining two years left on Michael Stone’s contract and set the 29 year old defenceman free. Fast forward one Juuso Valimaki injury later and guess who’s back in Calgary? You guessed it, Michael Stone.

The Flames inked the veteran defender to a one year, $700k contract Wednesday night. Now you may be asking yourself “Hey. M&G, didn’t the Flames buy him out and pay him part of his final two seasons?” Yes, you are correct, you crafty reader.

All in total, Stone will now make $3.5 million dollars from the Calgary Flames. Ready for some more crafty math? The Flames are going to SAVE money by doing this. In 2019-20 Calgary will save over $1.5 million dollars by having bought him out and re-signed him for $700k. It’s a genius move when you think about it, but what will the league have to say and can they do anything? You can guarantee that someone is going to cry foul on this when it appears that Calgary has done nothing wrong......besides exercise smart financial practices. Sort of.

So for now and most likely for 2019-20 Michael Stone is back with Calgary and they have a blueliner that they are familiar with and should be easy to bring up to speed on the new system (remember, Stone was out for all but 15 games of 2018-19 with a blood clot). His cap hit (according to Capfriendly.com) is $700k for this season and it leaves the Flames with a little over $7 million dollars to play with under the salary cap. They still have to sign Andrew Mangiapane and Matthew Tkachuk.