Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
Defensemen under 30:
Andersson 27
Kylington 26 (assuming he re-signs)
Miromanov 26
Pachal 24
Okhotiuk 23
Solovyov 23
Poirier 21
Kuznetsov 21
Jurmo 21
Grushnikov 20
Morin 19
Brzustewicz 19
Hurtig 18
Centers under 30:
Sharangovich 25 (winger)
Schwindt 22
Zary 22 (winger)
Kerins 21
Lipinski 19
We do not have an NHL centerman under the age of 30, nor a prospect that we expect to become an NHLer.
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This post is not directed at you Enoch, and I am just piggy-backing off your post.
I have been thinking about these prospect lists, and one thing stands out to me - this is a really good prospect base (including more names not mentioned here). Who out of this group (including everyone else) are the Flames 'building around'? Nobody other than Wolf.
#1C and #1D are very important. What is the most important for me is making sure that this organization finds franchise-type of players.
That's why I have no qualms about grabbing Tij ahead of a C or a D who may not be franchise types, if that makes sense. Basically grab BPA, period. Tij is a high value pick in my estimation because there is a lot of depth there in his abilities, and i will bet leadership will also be a trait you will see in him. I do see him as a franchise player. He may be a winger, but he is a franchise player that you build around.
The problem with 'building around Jarome' back in the day wasn't that Jarome was a winger. It was that they didn't do a good enough job at it. Flames had 3 'elite' players in that generation - Iginla, Kiprusofff and Regehr (and yes, Regehr is a hill I will die on when it comes to categorizing him as elite). If Iginla was a centre, it wouldn't have resulted in better outcomes really. Heck, Iginla was basically playmaker to Cammalleri the year they played together.
This team lost Savard and St. Louis. 2004 would have been a cup had those two players been retained. Savard and Conroy as a 1-2 punch down the middle, with Iginla and St. Louis on different lines.
Point is, just draft the franchise players. This team needs players to build around, and all positions are basically open (with Wolf being the only prospect in that category for me). I do think that there will be some surprises with a few current prospects who become better than what the appear right now, so that helps, so maybe there already is a franchise type or two in the system right now. This organization is amazing at continually finding NHL'ers throughout the rounds, so that is going to help too. However, the #1 target is to find as many franchise types as possible.
The last thing you want to do is come out of this as a much younger, but just as mediocre of a team as they have been over the last rebuild. I will be happy with a few of the centres and defencemen mentioned, but I would also be happy with Tij, because we had a front-row seat to how impactful he may become.