Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
There sure is a lot of homerism and wishful negative thinking in analyzing the Oilers/Flames relationship.
Oilers (counting Ference's LTIR) have 11.2M in cap space
Flames (counting Smid's LTIR) have 10.6M in cap space less whatever they sign Gaudreau for.
Improvements the Oilers made over last year.
Added Lucic, Maroon, Puljarvi Russell, Larson, (Klefboom and McDavid their #1 forward and defenseman each missed half a season last year)
They dumped Yakapov and Shultz, basically the equivalent of the Flames dumping Raymond and Chris Butler.
Tell me which of the Oilers top-9 would not be in the Flames top-9
Eberle-McDavid-Lucic
Maroon-Draistl-Polliot
Puljarvi-RNH-Kassian
And before you jump all over Kassian keep in mind that the Flames top have two of Ferland, Chassion and Shinkaruk still penciled in the top-9 along with Tkachuck.
On defense which of their top 7 does not start with the Flames? Would the Flames #4 Wideman/Jokipakka be a significant upgrade on the Oilers top-7?
Klefboom-Larsson
Nurse-Fayne
Sekera-Russell
Davidson
Last year Russell was #3 on the Flames and #3 on the Stars for 12 playoff games.
Last year the Flames were 3-1-1 against the Oilers 7 pts to 4.....and only 7 pts ahead of the oilers in the standings.
I think that that the points that the Flames win in the BOA this year will be important, well earned and celebrated.
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Might want to include the subtraction of Taylor Hall in your analysis which is a bit worse then the Flames dumping Raymond and Butler.