Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Breen is not a NHL player. The only thing he has going for him is size. He's a poor skater, can't do anything at speed and doesn't have any sort of hockey IQ to play at the NHL level. SOB is a bad hockey player, but he's vastly superior to Breen in every facet of the game. I'm all for moving some of the veterans out, like SOB, but only in favor of guys that have some NHL upside. Breen isn't one of those guys.
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I see where you are coming from with this. But we have really small defencemen and I can see what the team is trying to do. Plus even though I would agree breens only real upside right now is his 6'7 height and he may be underweight for his frame at age 24, but I think if he gains more strength and learns to skate he may be able to carve out some more NHL games. I dont really disagree with any of your points - except I think Breen has a chance to be an NHL player if he really learns a lot and grows and adapts his game. He has something you can't teach and its size.
I was watching the Heat last night and Ben Hanowski was flying around out there.. I was very surprised because he looked a lot slower at the end of last season.
Players do improve, sometimes dramatically - but I think the Flames are taking a chance on Breen and hoping he is worth the time to develop. He's not better than O'Brien at all but he could be in a few years if we get lucky. After all Breen has played only 5 games in the NHL iirc and less than 50mins total ice time..
