Quote:
Originally Posted by wingmaker
A couple of thoughts I had:
1. There is a slight irony in all of this. Sutter took a lot of heat for drafting a lot of western canadian players. One of his reasons he drafted that way was because he knew those players would play for Calgary and would likely choose to continue to play in Calgary. In the end, the first time Sutter really gets bitten drafting a European because they didn't want to play in Alberta he is not the GM that takes the heat.
2. Everyone pointing to Calgary's record of developing youth as a reason for Erixon not signing, there is one small flaw—the Flames were a better bet for Erixon to be in the NHL this year than the Rangers. Erixon was as good as guaranteed of being an NHLer this year in Calgary (Feaster said as much in his interview) while in New York he will be behind other players and in competition with several others. Going to New York in no way guaranteed him a place in the NHL this year. Other than in perception, New York isn't even a team that is much more successful than Calgary. Sure, they made the playoffs as the 8 seed, but in the grand scheme of things, they have been about equal to the Flames the last couple of years. They are younger, so perhaps they have a bit brighter future, but there is no guarantee they will be substantially better next year.
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A couple of responses.
1) Sutter made a mistake by not drafting a true Swede. We see that an American-born Swede just isn't as loyal as a Swedish born one.
2) I'm not so sure that is true. If you're looking at Dmen who are signed through next year, the Rangers have a much easier blueline to crack than ours. Erixon likely will get PP time with the Rangers as well. But more importantly, the Rangers have a slew of Dmen who got NHL time without much in the way of AHL time. If you're in Erixon's situation, you would take the NYR situation over here.