Quote:
Originally Posted by stemit14
I'm excited for next year of course but I think 2015-2016 is going to be a big year for this organization. I'm not going to say the oiler line of "this is our year" cause that's not what that season will be at all. But I do think it will be the year that the young players take over as the core players of the team. Monahan will be in his 3rd season and will be the team's top centreman... This year's first round pick will likely be playing his rookie season on the team... Wotherspoon and sieloff will probably turn into solid NHL defensemen that season... And I think gaudreau and baertschi will establish themselves as top six forwards in the NHL. It's an optimistic outlook but I think most of those should happen that season.
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Plus our first-rounder from 2015 might be on the 15-16 team, so there should be a number of young players to be excited about.
Imagine a young core of forwards in Matthew Barzal (for example), Sam Bennett (for example) to go with Granlund, Monahan, Poirier, Gaudreau, Klimchuk, Baertschi, with Jankowski potentially on the horizon. Yes, please. And that's without even mentioning the quality 3rd-liners in the pipeline.
Even if the Flames take a Hanifin or a Kylington instead of, say, Barzal or Dylan Strome in the '15 draft, finding skilled defencemen & forwards with size in the later rounds will be key. As others have said, having multiple picks in the 2nd-4th rounds especially will be necessary to address the weaknesses in the system.