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Originally Posted by Jay Random
But that is not a fact. It would only point to the lack of depth if there were so few centres on the roster that the team was forced to use a converted winger.
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Just because you can list the names of players who lined up at centre in that given time period doesn't mean we had quality depth at that position.
Again, I'm speaking to the fact that during Iginla's prime, we lacked anything close to an elite top line Centre. We had instances where a very good second line centre was playing with him, but in those cases the depth down the middle was terrible beyond that, and a key reason as to why the team never advanced in the playoffs. The depth at centre was abysmal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
Now, if you were to argue that the Flames should have paid Cammalleri the big bucks and not gone after Bouwmeester, I would be prepared to hear you; but it would be a tough argument to make, given that he never again approached his '08-09 numbers. If you were to argue that they should have gone some other UFA forward (ideally a centre), I would be prepared to hear that; but you would have to specify some players that the team could have acquired at that time. Instead, you seem to be looking at the numbers in the abstract and not at the players who actually were available at the time; and you have yet to explain why the same group of centres that was adequate in '08-09 was suddenly pitiful in '09-10.
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Who wins a cup with "adequate" centres? It was never going to happen with Lankow and Jokenin. The entire time Ollie was here we were hoping we'd see shades of what he was with the Panthers, but he was much closer to what we saw in recent years than anything resembling that. All of those years featured a team lead by stellar goaltending, an good, expensive blue-line and an offense lead by an elite power-forward RW with next to no depth down the middle.
It's really difficult to say what could have been done in hindsight. There were rumours we could have packaged a young Regehr and other assets for Joe Thornton. We could have looked to draft a centre in place of Phaneuf in that deep draft. Instead of trying to put together the Team Canada-esque blue-line perhaps Sutter could have shopped Phaneuf around a year prior to when he actually did to look at obtaining a true number one centre.
I don't have the answer, I'm simply pointing out it was a problem, and a big one. The centre depth was terrible during that time, and when you're looking at options like trying David Moss up there or inserting Jamie Lundmark to try and shake things up, you know that problem was sticking out like a sore thumb. Again, not a difficult concept.