If Smith stays healthy, we add a legitimate top four defenceman, and get a bounceback year from certain players (Bennett, Brodie, Gaudreau to an extent), I think they could be a top team in the west (which is what we were from November on last season).
Alternatively, if Smith's health doesn't hold up and we fail to improve on last years bottom three on D somehow, it will likely be difficult to make the post-season as there are always bouncebacks and surprises among the teams "in the mix".
I do think that whatever happens, the forward group as a whole has enough offense, play-driving/shut-down acumen and (to a certain extent) depth that they will score enough to keep the team competitive. However, it would be ideal to add one more quality top 6 guy on RW to really balance out the forward lines and make it especially difficult for opposing teams to match up against the Flames, which would help push them into that upper echelon of teams.
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