Flames fans are used to the idea of blaming Darryl Sutter. For every intelligent and well thought out move, like trading a second round pick for Mike Cammalleri or signing Alex Tanguay for absurdly cheap, he makes three or four extremely boneheaded moves, usually involving Olli Jokinen.

Unfortunately, it's time to start blaming Darryl for problems that are not just Flames specific. And the biggest problem we may have to blame him for? The possibility of the next lockout.

I've alluded to this little misadventure before, but I've yet to share the full story online, which I can now safely do as I no longer live in Boston and don't have to worry about being forever banned from Fenway or something (not that I like the Sox anyways, but still).

I haven't seen this posted anywhere, so I figured it needed to be brought to everyone's attention. The Flames' new back up ‘tendy, Henrik Karlsson, has a theme song. I implore you to go check it out. Make sure you got it turned up - it's guaranteed to make the ladies clothes peel off.

Daniel Ryder. The player who filled Flames fans with so much hope and now fills them with so much disappointment. Daniel Ryder was a 3rd round pick in 2005, the winner of the OHL's Wayne Gretzky 99 Award in the 05-06 OHL playoffs, and basically a stud player who just crashed and burned.

Would you do it?

After today, yes yes, a thousand times yes.  In case you didn't hear- and I don't know why you wouldn't have- Olli Jokinen has been resigned by Darryl Sutter. Yes. He's back.  So what does this mean for the Flames? Basically, all good will for Darryl Sutter is 100% completely gone.

To say Jokinen was a flop his first time around is like saying Jokinen looks like a monkey of some sort. He scored 15 goals last year. That's not worth the $5M he was being paid then, and it's still not worth the $3M he'll be paid the next 2 years. But for some reason, Sutter has the hots for Jokinen, despite not fitting into Brent's coaching style or on a line with any of the Flames. And that reason will always elude all of us.

Still, some perspective is always good- so let's get some of that. What other forwards signed today, and for how much?

1. Saku Koivu signed with the Ducks for 2 years at $2.5M a year. This is a solid contract.

2. Joel Perrault (who?) signed with the Canucks for $610K for next year. That's...okay?

3. Colby Armstrong signed with the Maple Leafs for 3 years at $3M each. Wait a minute- a younger, somewhat better player signed for the exact same cost as ol' Sex Panther?

Dammit, I can't do this anymore. I'm out. I'm getting so drunk that I forget this happened until tomorrow when I read blogs and start crying all over again.

So, another NHL draft came and went.

Unlike other drafts, Darryl Sutter actually told the truth when he said he wouldn't be busy. Unfortunately, this draft was the worst time possible for him to tell the truth.  Instead of shipping off salary or getting a first round pick, he sat back and let 60 something picks lapse before he took his first player. So coming out of it, we have a late 20's goalie who will provide depth on the farm (if he even comes over), a couple OK prospects from decent lineage's, and some guys who may never play a game in the NHL. But despite being boring, I think the draft was actually positive. We didn't get rid of any good depth guys (Glencross, Dawes), Giordano is still a Flame, and White wasn't moved. If Daz had made White's rights available, he would have got a early 2nd round or late 1st rounder. It was no surprise Sutter wanted to move up in the draft, and he could have easily done just that. But he didn't, and to me that signifies a strong desire to keep White around. Maybe this is a new Sutter we are seeing? If he really wants to sign White, which I now believe he does, he will have to move some salary. There are three likley outcomes here:

1. Daz decides to get rid of a)Sarich b)Staios or c)Kotalik, either by way of trade for nothing or demotion. Sarich is the prime canidate for deletion here, because it's a lot easier to justify dropping a aging defender who you signed 4 years ago as opposed to a guy you traded for last season. This creates the cap space and roster space needed for White.

2. White will be qualified @ 3.15 Million. This ensures that the Flames will get a handsome return if he is taken away (1st & 3rd) and also keeps the salary from getting too absurd. Personally, this is about 350k/year more then I would be giving him, but if Daz is uncertain in any way about getting this guy signed, he has that security blanket of the picks. Plus, 3.15 isn't exactly out of the realm of possibilty.

3. White is taken to arbitration and given a salary in the mid 2 range, and is resigned next year to a higher salary after Daz moves a contract or Staios comes off the books. The only problem here is that Giordano, Glencross and Dawes are all UFA's next year, and it would be extremely hard to resign all 4 of them to solid, fair value contracts.

In an ideal world, White and Higgins will be signed to good value deals by mid-July. Anything past that, due to the unique situation that the Flames are in, is going to very difficult to predict.

Well, it's nearing mid June, which means the draft and free agency are just weeks away. Also the Stanley Cup is over. That's kinda important.

Now normally I'd like to look at potential draft targets, but...well there's that whole not drafting for like the first bajillion picks, so that just gets depressing (also Hayley at M&G is doing a fantastic job already). So here I'm looking at the UFA list for this summer and who we could potentially target off of it. My criteria? All forwards (because Lord knows we don't need anymore defensemen) who scored 19 or more points. Why 19? Because Nystrom scored that many and it's as good a number as any. So without further ado, here's numbers 29-20.

Well, yes, I am. Unfortunately for you, some of my writing will be popping up more frequently now that school is done and summer is upon us. First things first: you hate the Canucks. I hate the Canucks. We hate Canuck fans. So, what better way to show them our resentment then kicking the shit out of them in street hockey? Five Hole for Food has also been commented on by Arik's nemesis, but I feel that I have to tell you that come July 5th, I will be the fat kid who just came out of his parent's basement with cheeto stains on his Iginla jersey. We shall be victorious! Also, I will play goalie. Because everyone hates playing goalie.

Also, bring a couple cans of food for those less fortunate. I know times are tough for everyone, but they are a little tougher for the single parent trying to feed 3 kids.

It's good to be back, 4th liners.

Chris Higgins Chris Higgins Chris Higgins. No, I'm not attempting to get him to appear in my mirror, though how cool would that be? I'm merely trying to wrap my head around what the hell the Flames should do about Mr. Higgins.

Here's the conundrum: Chris Higgins is a 3 time 20 goal scorer who is going to be a UFA come July 1. None of those three times have been in the last 2 seasons. He's coming off an injury which limited him to 17 games with the Flames after the trade deadline, also causing his counting numbers to be down. What do we do?

Me, I say let him go. Now, Higgins is a solid two-way player, much much better than Kotalik and we could probably sign Higgins for cheap. However, we're stuck with Kotalik, as a buy-out seems unlikely. We're stuck with that god-awful $3M a year. And we don't need more two-way defensive forwards who can't get the puck in the net.

I understand quite well that his shooting percentage was horrible this year, and that most players revert to the mean on percentage based stats. Unfortunately, this seems unlikely with Higgins. Let's look at his percentages:

05-06: 148 SOG, 23 G, 15.5%

06-07 (61 GP): 159 SOG, 22 G, 13.8%

07-08: 241 SOG, 27 G, 11.2%

08-09 (57 GP): 151 SOG, 12 G, 7.3%

09-10 (67 GP): 165 SOG, 8 G,. 4.8%

So what does this tell us? Well first, 4.8% is not something I'd expect anyone to shoot in the NHL level. That WILL bounce back up. But nonetheless, his shooting percentage is steadily trending downwards, and on a team full of "defensive forwards" or guys that can't consistently put it in the back of the net, that's not what we need.

I like Higgins, I really do. He's a good possession-driving guy. But we need more, so unless Kotalik vanishes somehow, or we can sign Higgins for absurdly cheap, I can't get behind him. He's not what the club needs.