Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameZilla
The team is winning and the team is scoring. Hudler would fetch the best return in a trade, sure, but to lose him at this point in time would be silly. He's our highest-scoring forward and a positive force in the dressing room.
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The team is doing well 20 games into the season and it may last or not. If it does last it may or may not be a good style to play in the play-offs but history has shown that small teams do not have great success in the play-offs, especially in the Western Conference.
Someone in another thread brought up Chicago but I would say their top 4 defensemen (Keith, Seabrook, Oduya and Hjarmallson) are all more physical than everyone in our top 4 outside of Gio. They may not be huge but Bickell, Saad, Hossa are all pretty big guys and outside of Kane none of their top 9 is as small as Byron, Gaudreau, Hudler, Granlund. (Maybe Shaw but he is much more physical of a guy).
Depending on results when LA and Van catch up in GP we could easily be in 4th in the division, not bad considering expectations but still showing the team needs to grow.
Getting to being competitive is a good first step but getting to be a contender for the Cup is the ultimate goal and that is likely going to take moving guys that become fan favorites.
Again I don't think anyone is saying trade Hudler willy nilly but he does seem to be the guy that will have a diminishing role by the time contending goes around, seems to be a guy that has a style that is a deep area in the Flames young players and is a guy that would get back some value. I personally would love to trade Setoguchi, Bollig or Smid to add size to our top 6 but that just isn't likely to happen.