**Soon-to-be UFA Stephane Yelle was resigned right on the heels of Calgary's elimination from the playoffs. The Flames' news release does not disclose terms; TSN.ca says his salary for 2006/07 will be $2.8M.

I love Yelle; as such, I'm going to reserve comment on the deal until the numbers are confirmed. I HAVE to assume that the $2.8 mil is actually for the next two years, not one year.

**News-To-Me Dept. (I stopped reading the Calgary papers after the 1st round): Dion Phaneuf broke his foot in Game 80 of the regular season, and sprained his knee in Game 5 of the Anaheim series.

I think it's Dennis at IOF who has pointed out a few times than Phaneuf's raw G/A/Pts numbers, combined with his flair for the huge hit, flattered his actual value/performance in his rookie season. I'm not inclined to rebut this, exactly. (At least, I don't think he was as good an offensive defenseman this past season as you would think from a quick glance at his stats: just from memory, quite a few of his PP goals were at 5-on-3, to boot).

That said, I'm relieved to learn that he was hurt, because he looked pretty weak in the playoffs. I don't agree with Dennis that Phaneuf was basically a 5th/6th defenseman with some gaudy PP stats. He really was very good this season, and I think the bodychecking aspect of his game was overblown (in a Monster way, so to speak). His play in transition, going both directions, was exactly what you want to see from a presumptive Norris candidate going forward. He makes plays, I don't know of a better way to put it. Hopefully next postseason, being a little older, a little wiser, and a little healthier, he'll be a lot better.

**Good to see Peter Maher headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The timing is perfect, I'd say: he's got another 2-3 good years before Bob Cole Disease sets in and becomes irreversible. He's just what you want from a home broadcaster. I've said this before at least once: there is nothing wrong or shameful about a broadcaster "cheering" for one team; the problem is only if/when his bias affects his ability to give a decently accurate account of what's going on. Maher is good this way; if the opponent scores because so-and-so missed a backchecking assignment, I hear about it (instead of, say, a rehashing of the last call/non-call that didn't go the Flames' way).

**Where Do The Flames Go From Here is a topic for the offseason, but for a hint of the way I'm thinking, check out Tyler's commentary on this season's Panthers:

Playing a game that has a ton of shots each way is a point in their favour -- the bigger the role played by the goaltender, the better the chance that Florida is going to win the game.

Of course. It's hard to call the Flames #27 Rank in Goals For this season simply a personnel issue: they were T-11th in PP%. Flames fans have been drilled that the team "can't win by trading scoring chances", but I don't know that this is actually true: with a Top 3 NHL goalie and a pretty talented D-corps, "trading chances" should work in the Flames favour more often than not. (Further "data" points: they did come back from 1 and 2-goal deficits frequently this season, and the two 6-5 games of the season were both wins).

You don't turn a team's identity inside-out in one offseason, nor would you want to, but there's some things to think about here. Anyway, more on this another day.