Quote:
Originally Posted by CSharp
Hate losing Hudler, but the team needs to get bigger. Hudler plays way tougher in front of the opposition net way better than Monahan, but his size is just outmatched by that are 1.5x his size. If only Monahan can play like that. Flames need to get big up front and especially in the back end. They're just way too soft and they really don't have anyone who is punishing. I really miss Regehr and Sarich when no forwards liked to into the Flames' zone.
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Indeed. The reality is the Flames are stuck in the Pacific against big, strong, physical teams like the Ducks, Kings, Sharks. We just don't have the size and strength up front or on defense to compete at this time. In an ideal world when you have little Gaudreau in your top 6 I don't think you can afford to have another small guy (Hudler). In the top 6 right now only Bennett plays a power game. Frolik has some size and can't be shoved off the puck easily. Monahan has some size but doesn't play a very powerful game yet and may never. We need a power forward or two in the mix to help stack up against the size of our division rivals.
On defense we lack that big, strong, tough, punisher who can play top 4 minutes without hurting you. Engelland is our closest to this at the moment.
Luckily at the top end of the draft we've got some wingers with skill and size (Puljujarvi, Laine, Dubois, Gauthier) a couple power forwards (Tkachuk and Jones) and dmen with size, skating, skill and physicality in Chychrun and Sergachev. Desperately need another top player with size, preferably one who plays a physical game.