Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
This insinuates that Flames fans presently have no hope, and with how much the prospect base of this team has improved in the past two years, I will respectfully disagree. There is actually plenty to be excited about down the road for this team (the Backburner is a great place to see the evidence for this), independent of whatever decisions are made to trade Iginla and Kiprusoff. |
I'm not sure there is plenty to be excited about. Optimistic maybe but not excited. The Flames have some promising prospects but I don't see a Jordan Eberle, RNH, Yakupov or even Hall. We all hope Sven can be one of those guys but that remains to be seen and I'm just not sure there are any blue chippers in the organization. Teams biggest need is an elite forward that is in the 25-28 year prime of their career. If Perry and Getzlaf test free agency you have to cut rope with Iginla (replace him with a younger elite player in Perry or Getzlaf) and Kipper (run with Ramo seeing they are so high on him) and offer one of these guys the Richards type deal that hopefully one of them can't refuse.
I strongly believe that Iginla needs to go if only to change the leadership of the dressing room. We are talking about a team that hasn't won a playoff series since 2004 and I'm sorry but I don't buy that #12 is a great captain. Great guy, great player, but lousy captain IMO. Take away 2004 and the Flames are easily the most mentally fragile team over the past decade and with five coaches shuffling in and out we know it's not a coaching issue.