Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamingLonghorn
So you think what Hartley does with aging 4th liners is more important than how he effects the progress of our future stars? Thank god you aren't our GM. You seem to think that young players are more easily motivated than vets. While that might be true (I would argue that they are about the same), getting young players to play the game the right way is the most important thing, otherwise you end up with the Oilers.
You also point to Tanguay, Iggy, etc... How many coaches did those guys float under? If you are vet making a lot of money and you can't motivate yourself, get the hell off the team.
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Nothing to do with age as much as professional and financial security.
If Baertschi got a big head ... Hartley (or Burke) can put him in his place.... instead of you making 900K this year you are going to be making 300k and maybe 60K next year.
There is over half of the Flames roster that you can't use this as leverage.
If an established NHL player sees himself sacrificing future earnings to fit into the system (more checking, less goal scoring) the worst you can do is bench him or threaten to trade him (if he doesn't have a NTC).
A coach that gets established NHL players to buy in (Sutter in LA) is crucial to success.
When Sutter took over in LA his high powered very well paid line-up (Doughty,Kopitar, Williams, Brown,Penner and Richards) was winning exactly as much as the Flames... they made the #8 spot 5 pts ahead of the Flames.
Doughty had just signed the 8 year 56M contract and was playing really bad.
Coaches that get the best players to play to their potential have teams that win.