Quote:
Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan
That's potentially a good chunk of the Flames' future for a player whose cap hit could screw the team over royally in the near future. I think we forget this is year 2 of a rebuild. Trading away multiple picks or prospects for proven players with huge contracts is something you do a few years from now, not today.
Why does he need to be moved out? Played a huge part this past season and was an integral piece of the 1st line. He sure looked hurt to me at the end of the season and into the playoffs. I would be in no hurry to ship him out.
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It's tough...you want to see progress over this year, and progress, in one most glaring manner, means a 2nd line (and 2nd PP line) that can relieve the top line with some legitimate, and consistent potency. The fact that the 2nd PP line didn't score a goal since mid -Feb, through the rest of the regular season and playoffs, is atrocious.
If the first line, a stratosphere ahead of the rest of the forwards, wasn't getting points, the Flames weren't doing anything most nights and looked awful.
I think Hudler stays, but there's an argument that if you do want to move forward, moving guys like him and Wideman, both of whom had career years and aren't far away from their next contract, can fetch a very nice return this offseason in particular, especially, as you say, if the goal is to look past this year.
Bennett will be there soon, and much sooner than most guys of his age and ilk, and that's great, but to give him the 2nd line center role before camp in far too presumptuous, and he needs help on that line anyways.
Plus, Calgary wil have some more UFA interest after the feel good season they had...again, strike while the iron is hot, that same perception may not be there next offseason, who knows.
That doesn't mean Kessel, or saddling the team with a lot of vets, but I also don't think it means Treliving sits on his hands and doesn't bolster the roster up front with some proven NHL talent, at least for the 2nd line...and instead waits and hopes that some of the young guys take the step up and everything comes together like it did with Gaudreau and then Bennett late, like expecting that from Poirer. Those players have to be acquired by giving up something, or, spending...