Quote:
Originally Posted by BACKCHECK!!!
As a 4th liner in the NHL, Jankowski would have better teammates, better opponents, better coaching, better facilities, etc. Everything is higher level.
As a 1st liner in the AHL, Jankowski gets an extra 7 minutes of ice time, against opponents who are clearly a level below him.
Not a good tradeoff, in my opinion.
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It's all about confidence - when Jankowski is playing those extra seven minutes, he's getting seven extra minutes to dominate his opposition. When he comes up, he's going to be feeling it, and he's going to be put in an offensive role.
We talked in the summer about Jankowski and Bennett fighting for the #3C. It's clear the Flames are giving Bennett every opportunity to win/lose that job and stick as a centre. It's concerning that Bennett has not developed chemistry with any of our wingers; people will criticise Monahan for being a 'product of Gaudreau', but Bennett doesn't look like an offensively capable centre ice man without Johnny riding shotgun. Monahan can play on his own and his production doesn't change much.
The team's biggest weakness is still the lack of a top line wing option - Jagr is not the answer on that line. We don't have a ton of assets to make a deal for outside help. What we do have are Sam Bennett and Mark Jankowski. Jankowski is going to be here sooner or later playing on the 3rd line with Versteeg and Jagr. Sam Bennett is going to play on the 1st line with Monahan and Gaudreau. Ferland will play with Stajan and Brouwer.
By Christmas.