Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkGio
C'mon. Kulak and Wotherspoon easily beat out Wideman. But they were "easy" to send down. It's very challenging to send down 5.25 million in the AHL out of the hop because that guarantees said player can't improve his trade value over the course of the season and you immediately hurt your cap structure for the entire season.
It's pointless to speculate. Wideman had a NMC. But Wideman was never the problem. Why constantly bring in these low-range guys like Jokipakka, Nakladal, Engelland, Smid, Bartowski to play 5-7 minutes when Wotherspoon probably never needed yet ANOTHER AHL season at 20 mins a night? At some point, it just tells your prospects there's just no opportunities.
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Come on, easily beat out Wideman? They were slightly better defensively but were inconsistent and didn't come close to Wideman's offensive ability. If anything it was a toss up and obviously the guys on a two way would be sent down.
The reason the Flames had to bring in all those older defencmen was because no one on the farm was ready. Wotherspoon had plenty of opportunity to gain a roster position over the past few years but has stagnated and it looks like his potential may be a tweener. I wonder if he is overrated because recently he has been the closest thing the Flames had to a defence prospect.
As I said previously I think things are changing because the Flames finally have some decent defence prospects in the system and I wouldn't be surprised to see 1 or 2 of the AHL guys earn a spot next season.