Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Defensively they are already pretty good if they get decent goaltending.... we saw that last season.
Obviously a strong partner for Brodie is a must have. Beyond that though they can muddle through with cheaper journeymen or some of the kids on the farm.
They need to add some offense somehow though. Whether its a pure offensive guy up front or getting some more scoring from the blueline (which is hard to count on)
This formula was shown to be the case pretty clearly in the SC final. Niether team was top 10 in GA last year....both were in the top 10 in GF however.
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I don't really see the need to add offence. I think the improvement comes from within.
-I think Gaudreau can have a better year, he wasn't at his best last year. I think what will help is overall depth on our club. Even if Gaudreau draws the opposition's best checkers and defensemen that should open up some room for the other lines
-I think Bennett could have a serious breakout at some point. He has the skill to be one of the best goalscorers on the team IMO
-I think Tkachuk still has a lot of room to grow. Also think we may get more offence out of him if he sees more priority on the PP. I know the Backlund line was amazing but I still think Gaudreau-Monahan-Tkachuk could be one of the best lines in the league someday
-Jankowski is a skilled forward who may help our overall skill up front at some point next year. Another guy who has PP capabilities and would displace someone worse
-Frankly replacing Brouwer on the PP with Tkachuk, Janko or whoever should help our offence. In fact not forcing Brouwer onto the top two lines or top PP unit should help our offence overall quite a bit.
-Monahan may not have peaked yet
-I think the PP units overall were constructed poorly. I would've preferred Gio/Hamilton on the first unit points not Brodie/Versteeg.
-Ferland may just be scratching the surface. Imagine if he can play a little more consistently with what he showed at times last year. Imagine him replacing Brouwer on the PP as the net front presence. Should be him and Tkachuk on the two different units as the net front presence.
High skill guys on the Flames IMO: Monahan, Gaudreau, Bennett, Tkachuk, Backlund, Jankowski, Versteeg
Complimentary skilled guys to play with them: Ferland, Frolik
That's 3 lines of skilled guys. I don't even know where we'd fit another winger if we bring Versteeg back. Obviously we can't count on Jankowski since he's a big question mark but he probably will break in at some point during the year.
Bottom line is the most skilled players on this team are what, 24 and under? No reason to think they've all peaked. Lots of reason to think a few of them may take a step forward. And thus I don't really see adding offence up front as a big need at all. If we don't bring Versteeg back maybe you pick up another option but I don't think it needs to be a big money, big name guy.