[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

He's streaky, but if he repeated his performance this past season, he'd get 3.5-4 million? So is he streaky or is he not?

You can repeat an offensive total of 40 points and be a streaky player. You could get almost half your goals in a 5 game stretch and a 4 game stretch like Ferland did this season. He's great for those specific games, but for the other 70 that aren't in that stretch, you've got a black hole in your offensive lineup. He is not a good/consistent enough player to play on the top 6 permanently.

On a game to game basis of course he is streaky. He's not a star player and isn't paid or expected to play like one. If he wasn't streaky, he'd be a $7 million dollar player, but why are we faulting him for something he cannot possibly be?

He doesn't play well enough away from the puck to be put in a top role. His shot is great, his physical play is great. Everything else in his game is more suited to the 4th line.

Furthermore, we deride Ferland's performance down the stretch last season when Lindholm was even less productive.

Despite being down offensively down the stretch, Lindholm was still more consistently contributing than Ferland down the stretch.

So you agree that losing Ferland creates a hole in the lineup and you want to replace him with Ryan Reaves, possession black hole, 4-goal scorer? Is toughness only measured by how many times your fist punches a face? Reaves isn't going to forecheck like Ferland, he isn't going to hold onto the puck like Ferland.

Reaves would likely only play when they are going up against teams with tougher players. If you're facing a finesse team, a guy like Lazar or whomever the regular 12th/13th forward would play. Gives you options. Just because Reaves is a possession black hole does not make him an ineffective player. People are too single minded about advanced stats. Of course the fighter and tough guy is going to be a less effective player at generating offense. His job is to make sure that teams stay away from Gaudreau and the other star players on this team. His job is to deter teams from doing dumb things to the Flames. The Flames were lacking in players willing to stand up for their teammates. Reaves would do that.

Is the grass always greener for other teams?

It is not like Carolina got raked over the coals here. They got Svechnikov, which made Lindholm expendable. They were able to get a physical player that can play a bit to give them some jam, which is what they were lacking. They upgraded their defense both in terms of getting Hamilton, but also with the acquisition of Fox (although I doubt they keep him for signability reasons). It wasn't like they gave up everything and the Flames gave up nothing. It made sense for each club to give up what they did. Calgary is in a different spot in their roster building than the Hurricanes are. That is the difference.