Quote:
Originally Posted by CaramonLS
Acquiring Jiri Hudler, Chad Billins, Kris Russell, Mike Cammalleri, Mark Cundari, Paul Byron, Lee Stempniak, Sven Baertschi, Ben Street. To name a few that have seen roles on the Flames.
I've bolded the ones that he actively had a hand in that meet the size criteria (and I'm being generous here) that were brought in prior to this year in your list.
I removed Ferland and Reinhart, since those were not his picks and Roy because he is a goalie. If anything this gives credence to the idea that his philosophy changed with the direction of the wind - if size was a priority, it was only recently considered.
Anyways, the fact remains we are one of the smallest teams in the NHL right now. We were last year too when we were competing (for real). One of the smallest if not the smallest forwards and defense cores. Results show that Feaster doesn't place a high value on size.
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Or perhaps it was that
1) the best available players available when the flames were picking were bigger in 2012 than in 2011 by random luck. You don't know. Its hard to say "it changed with the wind" when the sample size is 2 years. And the fact that Monahan, Porier, and Klimchuck are all normal to large players, also leads one to believe that again, the best available players available were bigger in 2013 than in 2011 by random luck.
Baertchi was the best player available at 13. Its obvious. And Gadreau was a great pickup. Outside of those 2 players, theres nothing in his draft record to suggest he's specifically targeting smaller guys. He just wasn't shying away from it when a smaller guy was the best player available.
2) on the UFA market and trade market, other GMs tend to undervalue smaller players across the board, making it a quicker and cheaper way to add skill. Perhaps bigger skilled guys are extremely expensive to aquire via trade or free agency.