Flames re-sign Andrew Mangiapane to three-year, $17.4M deal

The Calgary Flames were up to some late-evening business, announcing that they have re-signed forward Andrew Mangiapane to a three-year deal, avoiding arbitration. The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported the contract carries a $5.8M AAV, bringing the total value to $17.4M. The forward’s arbitration hearing was scheduled for this Friday, August 5. By avoiding arbitration, Calgary now has access to the second buyout window, which will likely begin on Saturday, says Ryan Pike of Flames Nation. According to CapFriendly, the Flames are now left with just over $1.26M in available cap space.

By signing Mangiapane, Calgary is effectively buying out two years of unrestricted free agency, as the 26-year-old was set to hit the open market next summer. After having star forward Johnny Gaudreau leave via free agency and Matthew Tkachuk announce that he would not re-sign in Calgary after next season, forcing a trade, having some certainty with one of their other key forwards and goal scorers is surely a relief for the Flames. Although the signing leaves them with very little cap space, it completes all pending arbitration cases, meaning their offseason work is likely complete.

For the player, this signing gives Mangiapane a large raise over his previous $2.425M cap hit that he had over the past two seasons at a reasonably fair rate in the market. As CapFriendly cites, Mangiapane’s comparable players include Jakub Vrana ($5.25M AAV over three years), Anthony Mantha ($5.7M over four years) and Pavel Buchnevich ($5.8M over four years). Prior to the 2021-22 season, Mangiapane had made a career as a solid secondary scoring option, tallying as many as 18 goals in a season, coming in 56 games in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. This year, however, Mangiapane broke out in a big way, scoring 35 goals to go with 20 assists.

In addition to scoring, Mangiapane brings durability and stability to the Flames lineup, having not missed a game in either of the previous two seasons, as well as 68 of their 70 games in 2019-20. Finally, with the departures of Gaudreau and Tkachuk, Mangiapane does figure to see additional opportunities offensively and on the powerplay along with newly acquired superstar Jonathan Huberdeau, which could stand to increase his value and production going forward.