Quote:
Originally Posted by bigrangy
...The Flames will have intentions on becoming a cup contending team sometime before Brouwer's contract is finished. My main concern is that I don't think a team with Brouwer and Frolik as their #1 and #2 right wingers will ever be a favorite for the cup, unless JG is the best player in the league, both Bennet and Monahan become elite #1 centres, and Tkachuk can be a 1st line winger stuck on a second line...
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I think the Flames will be entering that window inside of the next 2–3 years, and I also don't see any problem with having two players like Brouwer and Frolik in the Flames' top six in that time.
The Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins' top-six forwards scored 85, 59, 58, 51, 40, and 32-points last season respectively. The Stanley Cup finalist San Jose Sharks' top-six forwards scored 82, 78, 48, 46, 43, 36-points last season.
In 2015 the Stanley Cup championship Chicago Blackhawks' top-six forwards scored 66, 64, 61, 52, 43, 37-points, and the finalist TB Lightning's top-six forwards scored 72, 72, 65, 63, 54, 48-points, but unlike the other three teams did not have a single defenseman in their top-six scorers.
With a lineup consisting of Gaudreau, Monahan, Backlund, Bennett, Frolik, Brouwer and Tkachuk up front those numbers look to me to be very manageable predictions of future production at some point in the next three years. This is especially so with three top-line producing defensemen in the lineup.
Treliving echoed in his interview today something that I and others on this site have been saying quite a bit, and that is that winning teams are formed around playing pairs, and not necessarily set lines of threes. This means that EVERY team is going to have at least one and probably two players in their top-six that are not sure-fire top six scoring forwards. The Flames look to be well constructed and balanced to reflect this sort of thinking. After all, the Penguins won the Cup this year with players like Corey Sheary and Karl Hagelin playing on the Wings of Crosby and Kessel.