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Michael Stone Signed by Calgary Flames

Michael Stone

The Calgary Flames signed free agent defenceman Michael Stone to a one-year, one-way contract worth $700,000. This contract comes after having being bought out by Calgary on August 1st of this year.

Michael Stone Signs With the Calgary Flames

Over his eight-year NHL career, Stone has played for the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes and Flames. He has put up 29 goals and 88 assists for 117 career points in 439 career games. He was originally drafted in the 3rd round, 69th overall of the 2008 NHL Draft by the Phoenix Coyotes. His best season came in 2015-16 when he netted six goals and 30 assists for 36 points in 75 games with Arizona.

Last season he scored no goals and five assists, only playing in 14 games due to injury. He also added 10 minutes in penalties. His possession numbers were 51.7 percent Corsi and a relative Corsi of -2.4%.

The deal is at league minimum, with no signing or performance bonuses.

What This Means for the Future

This signing most likely was triggered by the news of young pivot Juuso Valimaki tearing his ACL and being out long-term. Not wanting to risk being ham-stringed by further injuries to their blue-line, Calgary brings back Stone at a combined cost of $1,866,167, taking into account the cost of his buyout.

While Stone stands a strong chance of losing his opening night spot to a player like Oliver Kylington, he will most likely make the team out of camp as a seventh defenceman. While not having impressive advanced metrics, Stone at least provides size and experience to the Calgary defence. His offensive totals have never been terrible, but are modest at best. He could slot in as a solid physical complement to Rasmus Andersson on the bottom pair to start if Kylington doesn’t impress during camp. His lack of consistency and poor analytic performance will likely keep him from a full-time job, though.

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