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Originally Posted by Caged Great

The problem with Sieloff is that he's very average in most ways and while he does bring physicality, he doesn't have a lot of size to go along with that. A player like Engelland is also fairly average in a lot of ways, but he has the size to go with the physicality. On defense you can't really have players that are just average in all areas. There needs to be some sector where they are well above average, otherwise you can just go sign someone like Diaz and say Schelmko for 1 million and get an upgrade over that player. You can handle having a forward that is very average as the 12th/13th forward without issue. The problem there is that the Flames have so many forwards that converting him wouldn't make a ton of sense.

He needs to improve either in a couple specific areas or overall this season or he will get pushed out due to having so much depth. Whether he does that or not is up to him really, and I do like him and wish that he could figure those things out because he does seem like a good leader to have in the room. We won't know though until the season progresses. At worst he'll be moved like the Flames dealt Reinhart last week.

Don't dispute the size issue, but the one thing that makes Sieloff unique as a physical defensive defenceman is his skating. He skates really well for that type of defenseman. He skates as well as Phaneuf did before the hip injuries. With the way the league is going, a defensive physical defenceman who can skate could be very valuable.