[united]

The Dougie thing is so puzzling. It seems like every draft and trade deadline his name is out there and yet he's such a good defenceman. Sure he's a bit soft defensively, and sure he takes far too many penalties, but all other aspects of his game are incredible. This is a guy who finished top 15 in Norris voting on a team where he was criminally under-utilized on the powerplay. Despite the lack of powerplay time with the first unit relative to what he should have gotten, he still finished with 17 goals and 44 points. With adequate first unit powerplay time he probably finishes with another 6-10 points and finishes top ten in voting. For whatever reason, despite his results, coaches don't seem to trust him with as much as time as you would think he would get.

You think it has to be something off-ice then, but by all accounts he's an intelligent kid from a good family. Maybe he's too smart for his 'own' good, according to Hockey Men? I really don't know. I know the team wasn't happy that he was on the first plane to Phoenix after the season so he could hang out with Freddie...is that a big enough reason for the Flames to sever ties with him? The last straw? Who knows.

The whole thing reeks of a trade where the Flames will probably take the L. I'm not trying to be negative, but these situations almost always result in the trading team coming out looking poorly.