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With Eric Godard going to the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday, the Calgary Flames lost their policeman.
It would be interesting if unrestricted free agent Georges Laraque -- who played for the Pens last year and has said he nearly wound up with the Flames after leaving Edmonton -- were to come to Calgary in a coincidental flip-flop of tough guys, but the cash-strapped Flames might have to take another approach.
Team toughness.
Also yesterday, the Flames' inked restricted free agent Brandon Prust to a two-year, one-way deal worth a cool million.
The 5-ft.-11, 200-lb. fire plug will make $475,000 in the first year and $525,000 in the second.
Prust fought 21 times with the AHL Quad City Flames last year, and has three NHL bouts to his credit.
But as game as Prust and teammate Eric Nystrom (6-ft.-1, 200 lb.) are to stick up for their teammates, they are nowhere near the heavyweight class of fighters in a Western Conference that features the Sharks' Jody Shelley -- one of the three NHLers Prust has fought -- the Wild's Derek Boogaard, the Avalanche's Scott Parker, and the Ducks' George Parros.
