The Calgary Flames have secured Matt Stajan's services with a four-year contract extension worth an average of $3.5 million each season. He will receive $4.5 million during each of the first two seasons and $2.5 million in the remaining two years.
Matt Stajan Accepts Four-Year Contract Extension With Calgary
Stajan, who was involved in the trade that landed Dion Phaneuf in Toronto, would have been an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The 26-year-old has four points in seven games since joining Calgary and a total of 45 points over the course of this season.
Robert Cleave from Matchsticks & Gasoline, the Calgary Flames blog, had this to say regarding the deal:
Stajan is a useful guy as a 2nd/3rd center, someone who can be productive against the middling players on other teams, and if you look around the league at what players who face similar comp and have similar numbers are making, I suppose the salary isn’t completely out of line.
I guess my issue with tying up him (and the dollars in his deal) so early is that in the Flames current set-up, he’s the number one offensive center alongside Iginla, which seems to be one weight class too high. Sutter might well have the feelings about the summer UFA class that I do, which is that it’s thin at center and any productive players are at a premium, so his price may not drop.
Stajan can breathe comfortably knowing he’s a member of a playoff contending team for a couple of years (unlike his days with the Maple Leafs) and isn’t viewed as just a rental player.
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