Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
So I think you are basically saying that guys like Shinkaruk and Poirier have one more year to prove they can be a top 6 scoring forward in the NHL, because by that point, many had concluded that Granlund would not be.
Since I would argue that Granlund was further along than either player at their current age, both players are much longer shots than he was.
IMO Granlund's value to this team was to make other more expensive players expendable in other deals.
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I think you're also missing the idea behind trading Granlund. It was not for a perceived lack of development or anything, it was that the Flames org. review their prospect base and determined they don't have enough players with high-end skill rounding out their system. So they made a move to get one, but had to give something up of technically higher value to get some one that is, while as you say not as far along in development, has a higher projected ceiling.
We have other Granlund-type players in the system (Arnold, Grant, Jooris, Bouma, Agostino, etc..) and so he was able to be traded. No one is going to argue that Granlund is currently a better player than Shinkaruk, but that's not the point of the trade. If you have confidence that one of the above can very seamlessly fill Granlund's shoes, than you can move him out for a higher risk/return player. If Shinkaruk ends up busting, it was still worth the risk IMO.
I like Granlund, but the deal is understandable.