Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
I think we need to be careful not to cherry pick though.
If you go straight to NHL averages the 10th forward has an average of 19 points, the 11th forward has an average of of 15 points, and the 12th forward has an average of 13 points.
The Flames last year had Stajan, Lazar and Hathaway at 10-12th in forward scoring with 13, 12 and 12
They're behind but the issue lies much more with the upper half of the roster than the fourth.
The bigger issue is the top of the roster and the fact that they need a better second line to trickle things down and help the fourth line. Past that they need quicker players on the bottom end to hold serve until the big boys come out.
By line the NHL had the following this season.
Top Line : 69 points (85/65/55)
Calgary: 85/65/50 (Tkachuk as third best forward)
Difference: -5
Second Line : 42 points (48/42/36)
Calgary: 45/41/26 leaking
Difference: -14
Third Line : 27 points (32/27/23)
Calgary: 25/25/22
Difference: -10
Fourth Line: 19 points (19/15/13)
Flames: 13/13/12
Difference: -9
The middle six is the culprit, the Flames need to ...
a) add to the top six and create a trickle down
b) get young, quick with upside at the bottom half of the roster so they can improve and not decline through a season
I don't see Lazar as a problem with his foot speed, but if he's beat out he's beat out.
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I don't disagree with you, in fact, I was actually thinking the same thing but decided not to post it. Productive 4th liners like Brett Connolly and Austin Watson and etc are not easy to find, but to me, that doesn't excuse the 4th line from their lack of production this season because we relied far too much on the 1st line this season along with Tkachuk, who in my opinion, are the only forwards who met or exceeded my standards.
All the other forwards just weren't good enough this season as we ended up as one of the lowest scoring teams in the league and as stats indicate, it's almost a virtual guarantee that if you're in the bottom 5 in the GF column, you just don't make the playoffs.
I do agree with you that the 2nd line was quite a problem this season. I thought they were good enough last season and for a large part of the season, was actually our best line. But they regressed and it definitely contributed to our failed season.
But the problem is, finding 2 or 3 new (potentially expensive) 2nd line forwards doesn't seem plausible to me in one off-season. Almost every team in the league is trying to find additional scoring and finding just 1 good difference making forward can be difficult (i.e. Troy Brouwer). At the end of the day, it may actually be easier for Treliving just to replace Stajan and Lazar because the 6 goals they provided can be replaced by almost anyone.