FlamesNation · Dec 22, 2020
2020-21 Reasonable Expectations: Juuso Valimaki
For now, the Calgary Flames look to have a pretty cut-and-dried top-four on defense. Mark Giordano, Chris Tanev, Rasmus Andersson, and Noah Hanifin are all being paid at least $4.5 million annually to patrol the blue line for the Flames.
Then, there’s Juuso Valimaki, whose $894,166 cap hit could increase by nearly 50% if he hits on all of his $425,000 worth of performance bonus targets this year. The young left-hander is coming off two years of injury-plagued development but showed extremely well in his recent loan over to the Finnish Liiga with Tampereen Ilves earlier this year. Could Valimaki surpass any of his more expensive teammates any time soon? Let’s break it down.
How he got here