The Shannon interview was really telling IMO. Look at where the Flames ranked in offence from the D. IIRC, 14th..19th... somewhere in the teens.
Now take a look at the ranking of goals against, and you will see this is not a hugely stingy team, especially considering the goaltending that this team has received.
I wouldn't trade Brodie (who has been looking really good lately too) for offensive help. What I would do is get this Flames team to actually use their defencemen. There is absolutely no excuse for this team to be so low in the rankings when you are looking at the personnel. It doesn't look like they have been playing it safe either and being overly-safe defensively to make up for the lack of offence.
Lately, the defence seem much more active offensively than for the majority of the season, and I hope that it is an adjustment that Gulutzan (finally) made, and not just guys deviating too much. Really hoping this is a permanent adjustment.
The Flames will be able to generate a lot more offence if they use their defence more, and it wouldn't be so blatantly obvious that this team 'needs offensive help'.
Add a goal-scoring top 6 winger and get the defencemen more engaged in the offensive zone, and this team would be very difficult to contain. The forwards would get more points as well. Just look at some of the players that Hartley had to choose from, and I will show you players that leached off really nicely from the D (and some of the other existing forwards on the team). I think the Flames would be 'fine' offensively if they just utilized the defence more, but both would be awesome.
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