Friends, unless he signs a new contract with the Calgary Flames in the interim, Johnny Gaudreau will become an unrestricted free agent on July 13. The entire situation has been fairly unique league-wide, in that it’s extremely rare that a player has a 115-point season and then becomes a free agent immediately afterwards.
But in the five-decade history of the Flames franchise, Gaudreau departing as a free agent would be unprecedented.
Now, it’s not unusual for the Flames to lose key players to free agency. Heck, in the fairly recent past the Flames have seen players like Martin Gelinas, Craig Conroy, Mike Cammalleri and Olli Jokinen play significant roles and then leave as free agents.