The other decision that the Flames made under Sutter was that their AHL farm team was going to be a pure development effort. It will be interesting if Feaster puts a few more journeyman pros in Abbotsford to give the heat a chance to be competitive as they develop.
As old as the Flames roster was with 3 guys under 27 the Heat has 5 guys over 26 - Myers, meyer, Keith, Piskula, Ryan Stone and one guy over 30 Quentin Laing , 2 if you count Kotalik.
This roster can not win consistently and the young guys can not put together impressive numbers.
On the Moose team that graduates a steady stream of players to the Canucks they had 22 players play for them that were 26 or older.
On the Moose play off roster they had 11 guy over 26. Jaffray, Rypien, Baumgartner,Garth Murray (not going to play in NHL again) provide a winning core so that the young guys get to contribute to a winning effort.
Hodgson wasn't moved from the top line on the Moose as he would have been behind Jaffray on the Moose to the the fourth line on the Canucks.
In the same way in 2009-10 Backlund played 2nd line centre behind Jaffray on a more successful Heat team.
Nemiscz as a first year pro was the go to forward on the 2010-11 Heat. his 33 pts in 68 games did not turn a lot of heads..... or build a lot of confidence.... But he had to adapt to a completely different role when called up by the Flames.
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