Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus
Let's not get too excited here. Gushing over a team on paper is exactly what fans in Edmonton have been doing for a decade now.
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IMO we have a better team on paper than EDM has ever boasted in the past few years. EDM has a few nice top 2 line scoring threats but lacks depth outside of that. CGY has much better prospect depth than EDM has had and in the last two drafts has managed to add some of the top 2 line talent that we've lacked in the past.
I agree that it's nice to temper optimism at times but you can go overboard on that concept as well.
Potential top two line talent
CGY: Monahan, Bennett, Gaudreau, Poirier, Klimchuk, Granlund, Baertschi, Jankowski, Colborne, Ferland (longer shot)
EDM: Hall, Eberle, RNH, Draisaitl, Yakupov, Perron, am I missing someone?
Potential NHL goalie depth:
CGY: Ortio, Gillies, MacDonald
EDM: Brossoit
The only area EDM may have an edge is in defensive prospects but CGY still has some nice options there with Brodie, Russell, Wotherspoon, Sieloff, Culkin, Kulak, Kanzig, Hickey, etc. EDM has nobody that compares to Giordano now. D may be a wash which would leave us way ahead in potential overall due to greater depth at forward and in goal.
And I didn't even touch on role players which CGY seems much deeper in with the like of Knight, Reinhart, Arnold, Smith, Agostino, Hanowski, Bouma, Colborne, Carroll, Harrison, Van Brabant, etc.
Looks to me like CGY's system is overall much, much deeper right now than EDM's has been in the last few years. Media and fans were dazzled by Hall/RNH/Eberle/Yakupov but you don't make a whole team out of one nice powerplay unit. Our depth is good enough now that we can be proud to admit it. We don't have to downplay the amount of young talent in the organization, it's fairly undeniable IMO. I wouldn't trade our team for theirs at all. A couple years in and I think we're already fairly far ahead of their 5 year rebuild. If they had taken Murray over Yakupov and Nichushkin over Nurse like their scouts wanted it might be a bit closer but I think we'd still have an edge.