Flames Sign Jay Bouwmeester

The Calgary Flames have signed defenseman Jay Bouwmeester to a five-year deal worth $33 million.

The cap his is actually $100K higher than Dion Phaneuf's. Combined, the two rearguards hit the cap at $13.1 million per season. When you consider that Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer hit Anaheim's cap at $13 million – but were a good seven or eight years older than these two – that's not half bad.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Phaneuf and J-Bo should feed off each other. Look for career seasons from both of them. Their presense will also help the top power play, which will include Jarome Iginla, Olli Jokinen and Player X. Whoever Player X is will see a nice boost as well.

The player most impacted, though, is not a skater. Miikka Kiprusoff should see a very nice boost in all of his numbers. How safe does he feel now? Especially if those two studs play on different even-strength shifts…