As for those that are worried about the kids not getting a chance...
There are 13 'vets' (incuding Monahan, Colborne, Bouma and Backlund) on the roster.
Since there are 14 roster spots, that leaves one open.
However, that assumes no injuries. In the 2012 season, teams averaged 225 man-games lost to injury (I will assume that is relatively typical of most years).
Forwards constitute about 2/3rds of the roster (14/23s usually). That means that, on average, teams lost 137 man-games to forwards that year. That works out to 1.67 players per game.
The Flames are pretty small and play in the big, physical western conference. That also means extra travel, which also contributes to injures. So we can probably assume more injuries than average (last year they had over 300).
So let's assume 2 forwards per game.
That means that - even without beating out any vets for jobs - there are 3 - THREE - available forward positions for rookies on a nightly basis.
With 82 games, that equates to something in the neighbourhood of 240 games available for rookies.
Even if the rookies were always the ones in the pressbox (extremely unlikely), that would leave 82 available man-games to be divvied up among them.
And these numbers don't factor in any deadline trades. It is probably safe to assume that at least 2 players will be traded at, or before the deadline. That means at least 2 more spots open for every game for the last 2 months (3 to 5 spots, depending who is in the pressbox).
Worrying about the kids getting a chance is the emptiest (and silliest) thing to be worried about, IMO.
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