Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
The Flames aren't a tremendously small team anymore - in the top nine alone, the only guys who are undersized are Johnny and Bennett. Versteeg doesn't need anyone to protect him. Ferland plays with Johnny.
Brouwer is there for face punching if we must go down that road. Between he, Lazar, Tkachuk, Hamonic, Stone, Ferland, Bennett, and Gio, there are more than enough people that can fight.
Nobody carries heavyweights on the roster, and that's the only person who fights a Gadzic type.
Now, the AHL is a jungle with no rules - I buy that you need that sort of player in Stockton. They have no place on the big club.
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While guys like Monahan, Backlund, Frolik, etc are not small most of them can't stand up for themselves if a guy like Kassian starts doing his thing with them in the crosshairs. Size is irrelevant. A guy like Lomberg is a buzzsaw and Monahan is twice his size but runs away from conflict.
Flames have to play Edmonton 5 or 6 times this year, plus pre-season and quite possibly playoffs. They have 5 guys who are average-strong fighters and their team will take liberties when a game gets out of hand or even if they perceive some slight (like someone bumps McLoser the wrong way) ; Maroon, Lucic, Kassian, Gryba, Nurse. While I think they are stupid for carrying Kassian, Gryba and Nurse when they already have two heavies who can play and that will cost them a couple games in the regular season, the Flames would be stupid to ignore that element completely.
Ferland is basically responsible for stepping up to all and any of the 5 of those guys if anything goes sidways. Then he's off the ice and you've got Hamonic fighting a heavyweight with a history of concussions? Brouwer has shown he is disinterested in fighting anymore... he had 1 fight all last year.
Engelland being gone means the Flames need to keep Gadzic around imo. If they don't, someone will end up with a broken jaw like happened to Gagner when the Oilers went soft a few years ago.
Game is changing but has not changed totally yet. It would be better to have a couple middleweights who can play than a heavyweight, but the flames don't have that luxury. Gazdic doesn't need dev time, can munch popcorn without any harm, throw him in the pressbox and put him in the lineup occasionally when needed for 10-20 games. Maybe pass him through waivers early and even send him down for a couple stretches, but they better have him ready for games that might boil over.