I remember when everyone in Calgary was enamoured with Regehr here. Way back, we had a thread on called "Which Flames Core Player will not be around in 5 Years". I said possibly Regehr because of the style he plays, I thought his body may slow down over the next 2-3 upcoming seasons (I was right and he was moved). My post wasn't the most popular at time as he was the anchor to our backend.
Gio plays a very different game than Robyn, but he has had injuries over the last 2-3 seasons where he's missed decent stretches of time. I don't want to play hardball with our captain, I truly do believe he will be effective until later in his 30's. At the same time though, the risk of him missing time in the upcoming seasons is going to increase and it is absolutely a risk that could become a problem for us. A contract like that comes with steep expectations. Our beloved Iginla (or Jiginla) wasn't always feeling the love from the fans towards the end of his tenure here because of his salary. Right now the man (Gio) can do no wrong because his contract is amazing, but you sign him to a 8 million dollar per type of deal and if he misses 20-30 games for consecutive seasons, well suddenly people will turn on him worse than Wideman.
You have to sign him regardless, but it's the nature of pro sports. If Gio gets big money over a 6-7 years, he might not be so beloved in our city in 3-4 seasons. Honestly, if I were Treliving it may be more advantageous for us to get him to sign a 4-5 year deal. Yes the money will be higher, but the flexibility it gives us could be more beneficial long term. 8 years for a 30+ year old is pretty scary.
