Quote:
Originally Posted by tkflames
Hmmm...I seem to recall edmonton having another first overall pick, their top scorer last year, notably absent from their dumped list.
I believe edmonton will have a strong start this year, but by November when injuries pile up for every team, it will be the same string of excuses. There is no top pairing defenseman on that team and no depth. As individuals Edmonton has a decent top 9, but there is no balance. Who on that top line is going to play defense (or on any of the top 3 lines for that matter). If edmonton is up by one with 10 minutes to play, I wouldn't want any of those guys on the ice. It's a team built with individuals, sexy names and toe drag specialists, which had been their problem for the last decade.
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Lucic is a +69 for the last 3 years. Brouwer who the Flames brought in to settle things down by comparison is a +7 over that same period playing on pretty equivalent teams.
seems that whatever line Lucic is on dominates the other teams line 5 on 5 by a significant amount. Might call that defense....
Their big centre Draistl put up a -2 on an awful team.... compares well with our big centres Monahan -6 and Bennett -11. True they don't have a Backlund.
Pouliot is a big lunch bucket player who plays hard and puts up decent points. a career +38 Frolik the Flames equivalent is a career +16
PS If Hall , a toe dragger of the highest order, is a huge loss then Colbourne (2nd highest scoring winger on the Flames) would be a have to be rated as a significant loss to the Flames.
Replacing Hall and Yak and Schultz with Lucic and Maroon and Larsson is a drastic change in style and attitude.
Larsson is a big guy that dishes out hits at a higher rate as Engelland except plays 22 minutes/game Kinda figure that he might be out the last 10 minutes of the oiler being up by a goal.