Quote:
Originally Posted by sureLoss
Wes Gilbertson @WesGilbertson
According to Gulutzan, #Flames RW Troy Brouwer is seven or eight pounds lighter than last season. "He is in fantastic condition."
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
That is a huge relief.
Nobody is expecting Troy Brouwer to go "all world" this season, but a serious commitment to getting back on track is a huge uptick for the season. I know Stajan felt he lost a step two years ago and got in the best shape of his life for last season. Made a huge difference.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
I thought Brouwer and Jankowski looked pretty good together.
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I sure hope the lost weight can help Brouwer to being a competent third line NHLer. He wasn't very good in 2015-16 outside of a short playoff hot streak, and last year was simply a nightmare. Jankowski will need to play center and with wingers who aren't blatant liabilities. If Ryan Van Asten really worked with Troy over the summer to maximize his physical condition we could at least put some gauze on the bleeding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thymebalm
Two of those players are in a 'fantastic' bottom 6. I believe you mean 'best case scenario'. Sign Jagr already! Our depth is so weak after the top 6 its scary.
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Sam Bennett is a fantastic bottom six option. Had 21 ES points last year in what was clearly rock bottom and should realistically pot anywhere between 25 and 35 ES points this year while being an excellent PKer and ideally a PP staple.
Versteeg is also a no-brainer. While he was productive... last year was actually the worst possession season of his career which was most likely due to playing with Troy Brouwer and two young centers in Monahan and Bennett. There's reason to think he should be better next season that he was last season.
Jankowski is a fantastic bottom six option. I'm record as saying I see him as a 6'4" Mikael Backlund. Maybe his game at 23 isn't as polished as Backlund's was at 27, but I don't think Backlund at the same age is a poor comparable at all. And Backlund WAS a good player back then at 23 and I think Jankowski is every bit as good and probably has more tools at his disposal to be better.
So that's three players in your bottom six that I consider fantastic, and two of them play center and are natural play drivers - which is a significant factor in weighing the whole bottom six.
Next is presumably Bennett/Versteeg's final winger. Whether that's Foo, Poirier, Klimchuk, Mangiapane, Shinkaruk, you've left a spot for a skilled and touted prospect. If none of these guys take that spot we probably WILL sign Jagr, but it's clear the expectation is on one of them to succeed in this role. It's a no-lose scenario between this player and Jaromir Jagr for the 10th forward. It might be a question mark who that is right now, but it's not much of a question mark that whoever it is will deserve that spot by the end of camp.
Then you have Lazar. Toss last year out the window due to mono. Assuming he hasn't gotten any better than the player he was in his first two years you have a good winger who can skate, pot 20 points without PP time had some success as a penalty killer at the young age of 20. 20 points out of an 11th foward is NOT poor production. The Rangers last year were one of the deepest teams in the NHL at the bottom of their lineup and their 11th-leading scorer at forward (Pirri) had 18 points while not offering anything of note in terms of two-way play or puck distribution. I am not even sold on Lazar being worth a 2nd round pick but I'm sure as heck sold that he's better NHL forward than Brandon Pirri.
Finally you have Troy Brouwer. I am a bit critical of Troy Brouwer... but if he is your 12th forward and can show even the slightest amount of life, he is a better 12th forward than most teams in the NHL. Full stop. Even if he is last year's Troy Brouwer, he's one of the few 12th forwards who can play power play unit 1 and contribute in that capacity. Even if 4.5 million dollars is tough to swallow for a 12th forward, that doesn't mean he isn't a fantastic 12th forward. And if he's able to be better than he was last year? Well boom, even I'll admit that besides last year he should be more of a ~8th-9th forward on a contender depth chart (which is still too far down for his pay but I digress).
And there's Matt Stajan, who I contend is an average 3rd line calibre center in the NHL still and has no business being pushed out of the lineup but it just happened to happen in an eight year span from 2007 and 2014 we drafted four very good centers with our first round picks plus trade for another (Lazar) who are starting to peak before his contract is up.
We're also ignoring some pretty rock-solid depth players in Andrew Mangiapane, Freddie Hamilton, Marek Hrivik, Garnet Hathaway, Morgan Klimchuk, Emile Poirier (assuming he clears waivers though), Ryan Lomberg, Hunter Shinkaruk (likewise), even Dillon Dube on an emergency callup. We are set up well for injury scenarios.
The only thing that could drag our bottom six down would be the Tanner Glass / Luke Gadzic types that teams love anchoring themselves down with. And some comments above suggest Gadzic might surprise, though I'm a skeptic.
Our depth is neither weak nor scary. That's not being a homer. Depth was a strength of this team last year when our top line wasn't performing, and the only guys gone from that group are Alex Chiasson and Lance Bouma.