The potential of the player is extremely dependent on his team-mates.
Go back and look at Giordano just dominating Dustin Brown - Dec 17, 2010.
utube link
In the Flames lineup that night the defense was Regehr, Phanuef, Pardy, Gio, and Aarron Johnson and Bouwmeester.
Gio was the smallest Flames D-man.
The forwards the Flames had dressed that night included Iginla, Bourque, Glencross, Nystrom, Prust, Moss, Sjoderstrom, Jokinen, Langway and Conroy. These guys were ALL near the same size as Gio or bigger.
The small forwards were Boyd and Dawes and in style of play Conroy.
That was Gio's best game as a Flame. The Flames beat the Kings 2-1.
There is no way that Gio plays that way against Brown and the Kings with last years Flames line up.
I really have trouble understanding how so many posters here can not see that this team would be a very hard place for Gaudreau to succeed.
The moves are being made to fix the problem (Jones, O'Brien, Knight, Galiardi) but it is hard to see this team being ready for Gaudreau next year.
Is there the will and direction to trade Hudler? Cammalleri? Wideman? Butler? Smith? Stempniak? Stajan? Horak? Byron? or somehow move them along.
Wideman and Hudler were very bad UFA signings that made the problem a lot worse and a lot harder to get out of. This was just done last year and somehow the Feaster team did not see the problem looming. This time last year Alui was our best physical prospect.
What moves are required to get Gio back to his tremendously successful the role as a smaller D-man?
If we want Brodie to play like he did the last part of last year he needs a significantly more physical supporting cast.