After placing the 32-year-old right winger on unconditional waivers Thursday for the purpose of cutting ties, Brouwer cleared this morning and exits the Scotiabank Saddledome following two seasons as a Flame.

"With some of the changes we made, as our roster sits right now, both from a personnel perspective going forward and from a cap perspective, we just felt this was a move that made sense for us.

"You have to make hard decisions sometimes and this was one of those."

Never really gaining any discernible traction here, Brouwer, who signed on as a coveted UFA following a monster playoff on behalf of the St. Louis Blues, scored 25 goals and added 22 assists over 150 regular-season starts donning the Flaming C.

"I want to say first and foremost, Troy's a good man and he gave everything he had to the team while he was here,'' said Treliving. "So we thank him.

"I had a good talk with Troy.

"These are never fun things to go through. These decisions affect people, affect families, and you never want to lose sight of that.

"I don't think there's one particular reason these things happen. Sometimes the fit's not right. You do a lot of work to find that right fit but sometimes it just doesn't materialize.

"Ultimately, it didn't work. But Troy's a pro and we wish him the best.

"Just disappointing."

Brouwer had two years remaining on his four-year, $18 million deal and the Flames will be on the hook for $1.5 million against the salary cap for the next four seasons.

But shedding a major chunk of the $4.5 million cap hit does provide a measure of flexibility with both defenceman Noah Hanifin and winger Hunter Shinkaruk left to be signed.

Over a summer re-tooling his roster, Treliving has stockpiled up front, bringing on board established names such as James Neal, Elias Lindholm and Derek Ryan, along with top prospect Austin Czarnik. Given those additions, the existing core of forwards, and internal prospects such as Spencer Foo bordering-on or already-tipped for prime time, there's quite a logjam for a finite number of positions.

"It's certainly is going to be competitive,'' agreed Treliving. "When you look at the number of people that we either project in there or others that project themselves in there.

"There's not enough seats at the table.

"Competition makes everybody better. It'll be up to the players to make that goal a reality."