Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashasx
There's a difference between being a team of rookies (Edmonton) with a couple of crappy veterans being sprinkled in, and a team of veterans (Calgary) with a handful of rookies sprinkled in. We are on opposite sides of the spectrum... both extremes are bad.
But can we at least move a little closer to the middle?
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I would tend to err on the side of transitioning young players in slowly as opposed to throwing them in the deep end and asking them to swim, but that's just me. I am scared of becoming the Oilers, where they stunt the development of their young players by immediately handing them roles they clearly aren't ready for. We saw this same process happen under Burke with players like Kadri, Franson, and Reimer, and those guys look no worse off for it.
I certainly don't see this as some kind of portent that Baertschi and Backlund are on the trading block. To me that's just looking for things to worry about that aren't there. I expect the Flames brass are hoping to build on those players just as much as we are.
I'm not saying I agree with everything Hartley does but I don't think some of the panic is warranted just yet. Like I said, I'm more interested to see what happens with some of these veterans on expiring contracts once we start approaching the deadline.