Burning Down the House

Farm Success a Priority

The Flames today announced that they have re-signed forward Jamie Lundmark to a one year, two-way deal worth $600K.

Lundmark resurrected his career somewhat last season under coach Mike Keenen, playing some valuable minutes and scoring some big goals down the stretch to prop up a floundering offense. The highly touted draft pick of the New York Rangers in 1999 was never able to translate his high-risk offensive game to the big leagues all that well, although he does seem to have a believer in Darryl Sutter who has now traded for him once and signed him in two consecutive summers.

The Alberta native with the Swedish last name displays brief bursts of crazy skills, but usually these “ooohhh” moments are just a precursor to an errant pass or some other head-slapping giveaway. A line of Lundmark, Bertuzzi, and former Flame Kristian Huselius would probably be the most frustrating combination of players ever to carve ice. Still, he has certainly made steady (if small) improvements in his consistency as a Flame and has shown a dedication to proving himself so that he can salvage a career that was quickly going nowhere.

The Lundmark signing comes on the heels of a savvy bit of thievery yesterday as Sutter also signed career AHLer Jason Jaffray away from the Vancouver Canuck/Manitoba Moose organizations. Another guy raised in Western Canada, Jaffray is a speedy winger who showed some promise in brief call-ups with the Canucks over the last two seasons, while helping to lead the Manitoba Moose to the Calder Cup finals this past spring.

Jaffray and Lundmark join other low key free agent signings in Freddy Sjostrom, Riley Armstrong, and Garth Murray to give the newly relocated Abbotsford Heat some veteran bite for their inaugural season. Clearly, after a string of terrible finishes by Flames farm teams, the organization has made it a priority to put a successful product on the ice in BC’s Fraser Valley. They also head into training camp competing with the likes of Kyle Greentree, Mikael Backlund, Kris Chucko, and David van der Gulik for the final spots on the Flames’ NHL roster.

Personally, I love these recent minor league signings. Developing a blue chip prospect like Backlund is a lot easier when it happens in a winning environment. He will be well insulated should be start the year in the AHL (as I expect will happen), but will also be given an opportunity to play with some veteran linemates who are skilled enough at that level to score loads of goals.

Nice work, Sutter.