[Trojan97]

Originally Posted by FlameZilla

31 years old, 58 points in 263 NHL games. If we are rebuilding, why take the roster spot for a bottom 6 centre prospect like Horak/Reinhart/Bouma? We have centres in the pipeline like Arnold & Granlund and on our roster we have Stajan & Backlund who are arguably 3rd-line centres...

The more Nystroms & Hendrickses that we sign or acquire the more fans in the future will be complaining about our prospects busting & young player development sucking.

Why did we trade for Stephane Yelle when we were rebuilding years ago? because players of this ilk are tremendously valuable on/off the ice when you are a team attempting to change the pathetic culture that exists in our locker room...

More about Hendricks...
"As a reporter asked one Capital after another about the 31-year-old forward, the players continued to give the same answer: it’s not just about how he plays, it’s about how he makes others play. Hendricks, they say, is vocal in the locker room. He pushes his teammates to do better and, in turn, they do. He’s always out there, at practice or in a game, whether he just got hit in the face with a puck or not.

“He’s a total package player,” his friend and fellow fourth-liner Jay Beagle said. “You need those guys on your team, those role players.”

Of course, intangibles are hard to quantify — they are after all not tangible. But if Hendricks can make the people around him give more and play better, maybe that’s worth an extra hundred grand or two a year. How George McPhee feels about that, though, is unknown."

Someone like Hendricks is not going to block anyone we currently have and would only make the organization, and those around him, better. I've been calling for a rebuild for years but that does not mean you call up every kid from the farm, there has to be a leadership structure in place where the kids are able to learn "Flames hockey" from solid veteran leadership. Guys like Reinhart/Bouma/Ferland/Arnold (future grinder/energy guys) would benefit tremendously from the presence of Hendricks.