Quote:
Originally Posted by Caged Great
Nope, the skill levels will be a problem this year. Basically we come in with a slight alteration between Colborne and Brouwer, although their point totals will be the roughly the same over the course of a season. So we have lost Hudler and replaced him with... Chaisson? Shinkaruk? Ferland? Someone that clearly isn't viable on a decent/good team to be on the first line regardless. Add in that they have replaced Russell with Jokipakka, who is more of a 6/7 guy than a #4 and have no other options.
The team in front of the goalie is worse. Significantly so. There is nothing that can be done about it until the 15 million dollars due to bottom end players are removed. Only 3 or so of that will be spent on Goalie raises and Bennett's new contract (his cap hit is already over 3 million, won't get 6 until he unleashes the beast).
Next year, the Flames will properly be able to address the lineup. Now we are stuck. The only saving grace is that players will get an opportunity in positions they would otherwise not receive shots in and see if they can rise to the occasion. I'm thinking at this point next year that TJ Oshie may be in a Flaming "C" because he's the only quality RW under the age of 30 available and it's doubtful that the Caps will be able to afford to keep him.
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I usually think you have a great read on anything Flames, but this post is way off base. I don't even think an Oiler fan would be delusional enough to believe this.
1. Losing Hudler is addition by subtraction. He was terrible on the top line last season. 90% of his points were fully a credit to Monahan and Gaudreau. He was downright bad for Florida too.
2. Losing Russell is going to help our possession numbers. Jokipakka has been up and down, but I still like him as our number 5 guy.
3. Colborne had way more opportunity on the Flames than Brouwer did with St. Louis. There's 0 chance Colborne comes within 10 points this year with Brouwer on the 2nd line with Bennett. Also, Colborne was only good when the games didn't matter.
4. Wideman can't get any worse than last year and actually looks serviceable so far in the pre-season.
5. Kulak looks to be poised to start the season in the NHL once again, but this time with a healthy roster. He's a very solid 2-way defenseman.
6. Bennett looks to be on another level this season. With Tkachuk on his LW and Brouwer on his RW, we now have 2 legit scoring lines instead of 1. And with Bennett away from Backlund, he'll have more looks in the offensive zone this season.
7. Hopefully Frolik can stay healthy this season. It was obvious he helped our team defense drastically when in the line-up.
8. Another year's maturity on one of the youngest teams in the NHL.
I mean, seriously why the hell do you think we're worse this year?