Having just come back from a golfing long weekend with a bunch of friends, I'm taking off on Friday for 10 days with the family, and will miss the UFA media excitement (Idaho: not really a hockey hotbed).

Here is our old friend Flames Salary Chart, June 25 edition. As noted many times before, I much prefer this illustration to "Flames have $45.X mill committed to 14 players" -- this shows roster spots that must be filled by hook or crook.

So using only non-1st-round minor leaguers and veteran Byron Richie-type UFAs to fill out the roster (and assuming that the Langkow deal is done), Calgary is at about $52.2M. Signing one additional player to a $4.5M/yr deal increases the payroll by $4M, putting them at $56.2M, which is about at or over the cap. Translation: barring buyouts and waivers, they can't spend $4.5M on a UFA. So, who are we potentially looking at?

If I'm the GM, I think I'm targeting Ruslan Fedotenko and Martin Gelinas. RF put up a positive Corsi # and an OK plus/minus last year playing against tough opp with (mostly IIRC) Hunter and Sillinger. His boxcar numbers were meh, helped in part (from the buyer's perspective) by 15 games on the DL. Sutter has seen him good: he scored both TB goals in G7 of the '04 Finals vs. the Flames. I think something like $10M/3 years is actually possible, and would probably pay off.

The apparent departure of Conroy makes it possible, and maybe even desirable, to bring Gelinas back from a political (for lack of a better word) perspective. Martin G. is another guy whose G-A-Pts do not reflect his true value: he missed 25 games due to injury last year, and put up pretty decent rates pulling 3rd line duty against decent competition and without star linemates. He's fit. If you're going to hire a 38-year-old to help your team for a decent price -- and the Flames have few if any other options -- then this is the guy.

Which gives us a roster something like this, which actually gives me a bit of hope for the season. Giordano is apparently signed to a 3-year (1-way!) deal, making either Warrener or Eriksson the #7D. Seems like the practical thing to do there would be to send that guy to the minors, not as a straight-out salary burial per se, but to save a few cents against the cap until someone gets hurt; that cap space may be needed (and multiplies) closer to the trade deadline.

Actually, 4th line aside, I don't mind this lineup. Iginla w/ Cammy and DL is a solid #1 line and PP unit; Lombo between RF and Moss should be able to keep the puck going in the right direction as much as the wrong one, and maybe pot a few goals; I definitely prefer Boyd as a centre, and with Gelinas and Nilson on the wings I think that's pretty workable as an ongoing proposition.

I'm happy with the D; my present mindset is that The Warrener is still serviceable as a 3rd-pair guy. Naturally, I'd love it if Pardy or Negrin or Pelech or somebody stepped up in training camp and bumped Eriksson even further down the depth chart. And in goal... Kipper needs to play better. That's 90+% of what needs to be said about the goaltending position. My preference is Curtis Mc-E as the backup, getting 20-25% of the starts, but it's not going to matter much if Kipper can't turn things around a bit.

**Metrognome and Jean Lefebvre had good final takes on the Tanguay situation. This certainly needed to be said, so thanks MG:

This isn't the Senators dealing Havlat because they simply have too many good players to fit under the cap...the Flames, in direct contrast, are in desperate need of top 6 forwards.

No, this is Calgary moving Tanguay because he was crowded out by the suck.

Read the whole thing. And Lefebvre fleshes things out from the Tanguay side a bit more. Yes, he did want out. "Frustration at his role" is essentially correct, although he is probably owed a bit more nuance on account of the fact that he performed that role well and certainly didn't sulk. More like, "Frustration that his role virtually assured that his counting numbers would suffer and that he'd be viewed as a bust." JL sums it up nicely:

In a way, Tanguay paid the price for the fact that the other skilled left-winger on the club — Huselius — was not considered a safe option defensively and also that the play of many of the traditional plumbers and checkers — Stephane Yelle, Wayne Primeau and Marcus Nilson — suffered because of age, ineffectiveness and/or injuries.

The punchline -- where the joke is on Tanguay -- is that if Carbo uses him next season that best exploits his roster's varying strengths and weaknesses, it's not going to get much better.

**Lastly... can I request a moratorium from Darryl Sutter going forward on Entry Draft Excuses? Every interview I heard or read from him in the two weeks prior to the draft included very matter-of-fact statements about how glad they were to be picking as high as #17 this year, and that you can't expect miracles from the 20s. If you don't think you can find talent in the position you're given, then trade up! Or at the very least, if you're going to repeatedly trade down, then shut up about the whole thing. Please. Or! -- heaven forbid -- admit and take responsibility for the fact that your record since picking Phaneuf is poor.

Enjoy Christmas in July, everybody⁺⁺. Hope you find what you were hoping for under the tree.

⁺⁺Oiler fans excluded.