[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by robaur

so essentially you are saying we dont have a 2nd line...because..

Ferland-Bennett-Jooris

is not a 2nd line either....even though Ferland was one of our better forwards last night...he is not a top 6 forward YET. only Bennett might be remotely close to playing that role.

So glaringly...we are missing at the minimum 1 top 6 forward if/when Bennett steps up into that role.

We have a lot of fluff in our lineup:

Backlund
Ferland
Jooris
Bollig
Jones
Raymond
Stajan
Colborne

are all bottom 6 forwards and should not be playing a top 6 role.

Disagree on Backlund.

By all statistical measures (except for goals/60) he is a second line player.



Hudler, Monahan, Gaudreau, Frolik, & Backlund are all legitimate top 6 players. That means that only "1" of our fluff players is playing a top 6 role (Bouma).

One worry is that Frolik also tends to have the same weakness as Backlund in the G/60 aspect of his game.



However outside of Backlund all of the players that you listed do play a bottom 6 role. So not sure why you listed 7guys, whom all actually play in the bottom 6, and then stated they shouldn't play top 6.

The team has a poor night, and Backlund specifically was not good, but I don't think that changes his past 3 seasons of progress.

I will agree that the Flames do not have an elite 2nd line, it is a fairly average 2nd line, especially in terms of production. Which is why we need our strong bottom 6 depth, and Bennett in particular, to really step up with better match up to produce from lower in the lineup.