Quote:
Originally Posted by FlameZilla
It isn't looking good for Pat Sieloff. Comments from management in preseason implied they were going to experiment with Sieloff as a forward because, at 6’, he wasn't a big enough body to play the game he wants to play. Now late in the season Huska is playing Sieloff as a winger. It doesn't bode well for his future with the Flames. How many freakin' LWers do we have on the cards already?
To me he needed to play lots of minutes on D this year to make up for missing last year entirely. Perhaps he would have been better served by spending the year in the ECHL than by being a healthy scratch in the AHL. Hopefully he plays well enough next year to play a full season in the AHL.
As you say, he's only 20 and could conceivably become a decent defenceman for us in 4 or 5 years time. Or maybe he's the next Lance Bouma? Do our management have the kind of patience needed to devote a contract to this guy if they're not even sure what position they want him to play? A lot of questions surrounding him and I don't think it bodes well that he's been leapfrogged by a half-dozen other defence prospects in the system and that we're going into the 2015 draft with 6 picks in the first 3 rounds.
I like him, though, and hope he pulls through. He's got the right attitude to best the odds. Next year is going be huge for him.
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Sieloff actually has a really good slap shot and wrister with fairly decent accuracy, which is shocking for the lack of offensive numbers he has put up through his junior career. He has the right attitude to be a leader in much the same manner that Bouma does, perhaps he might just be one of those weird guys that transitions effectively from a D-man role into a forward role.
There is nothing in his game that would be a hindrance to him becoming a forward, he has good enough foot speed and is mean enough to be a winger. At least there's the option anyway.