Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Menace
I think the point is (for me anyway) that we shouldn't have signed any UFA forward last summer. To me we had plenty of viable candidates on the farm, we didn't have to "give" the spot to one of them, but certainly they could have fought it out for a spot amongst themselves.
Instead we gave that time to Seto (albeit only for 12gp), and to Raymond (who granted looked good in week 1).
I think we would have been better served to have the youngsters fill those spots.
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You don't count on players you believe are going to be in the AHL to replace guys that are NHLers. Who should have been playing over Raymond at the top of the year, out of training camp? Who should have been playing RW over Setoguchi (don't say Sven because he can't play RW - it's been tried and didn't work)?
And when it was time, they did fill those spots. Setoguchi was sat, then waived. Raymond's been scratched. And right now Raymond is playing, and IMO playing better than anyone who'd otherwise take his place. You can't put Wolf in his spot, not has Poirier done enough to merit it. Byron maybe, but not to replace production.
Signing them was not a bad move - it was prudent, given they didn't know what they had in the kids yet. And the pricetag was not out of line for Raymond, if you look at UFA wingers at age 29, espeically 20 goal guys.
Bottom line - I don't get this argument, which is basically - "Oh noes - we have too many NHL calibre forwards".