Everything you need to know about the Daymond Langkow Cap Situation

There's a rumour that was started this morning by the Calgary Herald that Langkow is healthy enough to return to the Flames lineup, however there are cap problems with the Flames that prevent the organization from bringing his 4.5 million dollar contract off the LTIR.

It is true that as it stands now, the Flames do not have the cap space to bring Langkow on board, in fact they don't have enough room to bring anybody on board right now; they are pushing cap! (they have the least cap space in the league).

There are a combination of players that Jay Feaster would have to send down to Abbotsford in order to make room for Langkow's 4.5 million dollar contract. But Feaster has to be careful because when he sends players down to the AHL every team in the league gets the opportunity to pick those players up off of waivers for their full salary for the duration of their contract. This is a list of healthy combinations of players that I would send down if i were Feaster:

Hagman + Stajan would do it. But it would be tough to part with two players that have been playing mediocre hockey all season, for the uncertainty of Langkow.

Nemisz + Ivanins + Modin + Kotalik- This is possible. I don't know why Ivanins is still counting against the cap but he is. Modin hasn't done anything since he came here so he's expendable. Kotalik played his best hockey in Abbotsford so it wouldn't be too hard to send him back. It's just tough to say goodbye to four players and bring aboard one when you already have injuries to Morrison and Moss.

The ideal situation would be to pick two of the following three players: Kotalik, Stajan, Hagman. I guess I would do Kotalik and Hagman. It would be great if some other team took one of them through the waiver-wire so the Flames don't have to deal with their fat salaries next year. However anyone that has followed the play of Kotalik and Hagman this year would know that they are not even worth half the salary they are making.

So it's starting to look as if the Flames won't see Langkow until next season, unless some major injuries happen to players on the Flames that are making big money.

-HArk