[Oil Stain]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Yeah the GA the past two seasons was about 80% on goaltending. Did you see how bad it was? The SA were not high in comparison with the league, but the goalies still let that defence core down with constant untimely goals. Hamonic had a rough year, and has a good track record beyond that of being a more defensive-minded guy, so cherry picking a single season and expecting that to be the continuation/norm is a little silly, don't you think? Also worth noting the Flames were a markedly better team defensively with Stone as the #4, as their excellent record in the last third showed (I'd argue it was more on team play than Elliott getting hot, most goalies would've won 8-10 in a row the way they were playing). Now you're keeping Stone, giving him easier duties, and adding Hamonic who has all the potential to rebound.

Oilers have a better goalie as it stands, but their blue line is paper thin, and you can't bank on young d-men to fill out their potential until they actually do. Using "they're young and only improving!" is reminiscent of Oilers fans talking about their '07-15 cores and repeatedly falling back on potential as an argument to why they'll be good tomorrow (etc, etc, etc), whereas the Flames have 5 proven guys that can deliver pretty high end, top 4 play that you don't have to cross your fingers for to pan out. They're already there. Sekera will provide the Oilers with a boost, but he will surely not be playing good hockey right off the hop coming off a long term injury like that.

Let's see if Talbot can carry a limping blue line this year, that was already not up to snuff. He's good enough to do it, but it's not a given. If the Flames get better goaltending from Smith than they did from Hiller/Elliott, which isn't a high bar to surpass - even league average - then they'll be a much stronger defensive team that can also afford an injury here or there with their depth. And that'll be due to the great structure of their blueline, not the efforts of 1-2 guys. Banking on the latter is a dangerous game, and I expect it to bite (or-burn) the Oilers in the rear end at some point. Likely when their luck runs out on the injury front.

Flames goaltending was pretty close to league average last season.

It's not like they were the Dallas Stars getting last place goaltending.