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Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
I never said he wouldn't be better. But he might get 30 points this year, so jumping beyond 50 next year would be a big leap.
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To be sure, but he's right at the age for making big leaps; particularly if the team is forced to give him top minutes every night because they're that short of scorers. If he spends next season as the #2 C with first-unit PP time, he could pull it off.
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Who else on the team looks to score at that pace? I dont see Hudler coming back and Backlund/Frolik top out at 40.
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The assumption has been that Hudler would not be back because he would demand a big pay rise for his '14-15 stats. Now that he's returned to more or less normal, I can't imagine anyone offering him that kind of overpayment. It's entirely possible that the Flames will be able to re-sign him for roughly the same money he's making now.
Frolik has topped 40 points four times in his career, but never hit 50, so I'll give you that point as amended. Backlund I agree about.
The real question is whether the team brings in top-line talent in a trade or through free agency. Nobody expects them to – but then, nobody expected them to acquire Hamilton last summer. Certainly Treliving knows that the need is there, and he's shown considerable cunning and creativity in filling such needs.
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Look at what Niewendyk had for a support cast when he pulled it off.
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Scoring five goals in a game is a fluke at the best of times. The supporting cast doesn't have all that much to do with flukes. The Wings had a good roster when Franzen scored five in a game in 2010-11, but they were nothing like the offensive juggernaut that was the late-80s Flames.
It's very unlikely that Gaudreau will ever score five goals in an NHL game. But it's not impossible, and the odds are not much different at one time than another. He's pretty nearly as likely to do it next year (or even this year) as any other year.