[cowtown75]

Originally Posted by stemit14

I think it's a good argument that was made before... maybe these young players need to be developed better by the organization. I look at a team like boston... I think they are one of if not the best in the league at developing talent. I look what they did with guys like marchant, Lucic, Bergeron, and Krejci and I see how they were patient in bringing them up to the NHL but they also put them in positions to succeed when they came up. And they have a whole new crop of guys that they are doing the same thing with: Soderburg, spooner, Krug, Bartkowski, and Hamilton all look right on track to be great players.

I think a big part of their success is that they roll all four lines more evenly than anyone in the NHL and they include scoring talent on every line. If you think about it, any rookie that comes up gets to play on a line that gets good minutes and has guys that can produce. It makes the bruins a deeper team and it's why Boston's 3rd and 4th lines seem to put up just as many highlight reel goals as their top lines.

In Calgary, for the longest time it's seemed like the philosophy has been that any skilled prospect gets put on a 4th line with fighters who only play 5-7 minutes a game and they can only move up the line up if they score. We've seen it with guys like Boyd, Backlund, and even baertschi last year at times. Guys who seem to have the skills but aren't put in the right spot to succeed. When Boston brought up marchand in the 2011, They put him onto the line with Recchi and Bergeron so that he could play the game that suited him. Same thing with Krug last year... They didn't bring him up and make him play as a 6th defenseman... They put him on powerplays in his first game.

I do think the flames are getting better at developing players but it would be very disappointing if a guy like gaudreau comes up next year and is put on a left wing with McGrattan and told that he has to score with those line mates in order to move to a better line.

Excellent analysis, well played, and agreed.