Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
These sorts of "if ... then" assertions really annoy me. If Foo is really good enough he could conceivably make the Flames on opening night, and it wouldn't be an indictment of the quality of the rest of the team.
I think he plays in Stockton, but I am not settled on that being the best outcome.
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A team that is about to enter contender status should not need to press a college player like Foo to play in one of the top 3 RW positions during his first pro season even if he looks like he can handle it.....specifically straight out of training camp. A jump from playing 40 some games a year into the trenches against the best players in the world is very challenging and is only done by the best of the best prospects.
If your assessment is such that he would make the team only to play 4th line minutes then he would absolutely be better off doing what Jankowski (a much better prospect than Foo) did by playing a huge role in Stockton for a year....something that didn't hurt him at all.
As it stands now the Flames definitely need some extra punch on the wing. I'd rather risk Jagr at a low AAV for one year than rolling the dice on a kid like Foo even if he appears ready. In the long run he will be a much better player by eating some huge minutes in the AHL on what should be a very solid team.