Quote:
Originally Posted by toquester
I don't think they would have to be all-stars, but if one was able to match Camalleri's contribution, and the other two were very good, this Flames team could be much better than last years.
You can't forget just how close they were to several more wins last year, even with a horrendous number of injuries, rookie goaltenders and placing a lot of responsibility on their prize rookie center.
Just a normal year for injuries, some stability in goal, growth from players like Monahan and better years from players like Glencross, additions like Mason and the ongoing excellence of Hartley's coaching, should make a huge difference. If they find amongst those rookies a replacement for Cammalleri, and this team should be head and shoulders above last years team.
Not to say all of these elements will occur, but there are some impressive building blocks in place already, and you can't ask for more than that.
|
Yeah in a dream scenario you could see significant improvement.
But the biggest issue is depth. Our lineup on paper looks pretty mediocre as far as scoring goes. Then you factor in that we're likely to be missing a couple forwards for most of the year due to injury and it really places a lot of burden on the remaining guys and the rookies.
Again same for defense. On paper our top 6 is pretty dece. But suddenly if we're missing two of them it could lead to some rookie mistakes and people having to play over their heads.
In the summer the common problem of analyzing rosters is forgetting that injuries will usually ravage the lineup at points, or all season.
I think for us to show significant improvement we'd have to have a very injury free season. We just don't have the depth to compete with most of the western teams, the west might have gotten even tougher this offseason.