Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
And where is Raymond.... for the next 2 years.
If it happens that Hudler and Jones start the season playing better than Frolik (even chance of that IMO) and Jooris and Granlund are as good or better than Frolik (longer shot but not outside the realm of rational thought... all are NHL level players) who gets to sit and who gets the 4th line minutes? You can see the meritocracy that works so well for the Flames last year starting to crumble....
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You make it sound like having depth is a bad thing. It's not. It's a long season and many of these young players will be able to force their way onto the team when their opportunity arises.
Re: Frolik, he's a decent depth signing because he can play all 3 forward positions. Raymond was frustrating last season and I can't imagine he factors in for much longer, but at least with Frolik we get an experienced player, Cup winner, who has some degree of versatility. I don't get why you don't rate the player; he brings skill and intelligence, even if he doesn't rate highly on your GRIT gibber jabber. Keep in mind that we can expect perennial GRIT favourite David Jones to be injured for a good chunk of the season too, so a durable vet RW was an essential acquisition for this team to compete.
To me Poirier is the most exciting NHL-ready forward prospect we have (not named Bennett), but another long stint in the AHL is not going to hurt him. Think Nyquist in Detroit; sometimes a bit of extra percolation works wonders for these kids. Granlund is definitely NHL-ready and useful, but we may as well take advantage of his last year of waiver eligibility while we can. These kids have good attitudes. If they exhibit prima donna bull$#!t because they haven't been handed a roster spot then we know they're not going to fit the ethos of Hartley's Flames team. We also know from recent experience that if a youngster is good enough to displace veterans for a place on the roster Hartley will allow that to happen. The Country Club days are over and the organisation is full of talent in most every department. Rejoice, you fool!
