The way I saw the Flames the last few seasons was a defense-heavy team that absolutely NEEDED the defence to contribute to the score-sheet more than most teams.
Now this team is a more traditionally balanced team, with the bonus that Hanifin + a possible resurgence by Brodie may replace all that was lost in terms of Hamilton's offensive contributions, not even including Giordano who I think will focus more on his two-way game again.
It was infuriating that Gulutzan didn't see this with the team composition. Now the Flames are rather flush with goal scoring/play making ability up front without taking too much of a hit on the back-end.
I don't think this team will miss Hamilton. I like Brodie more on the top pairing as I feel he is much more dynamic, with the caveat being that he regains some of his confidence. I do think that Hanifin is a bigger downgrade TODAY than most are giving credit for, BUT there is a good bet to be made that Hanifin will grow his game immensely in the next couple of seasons.
This is one of those articles that you just want to bookmark for future reference (i.e. giggles). I really think it is rather lazy articles like these contribute to negative feelings towards the analytics community as a whole. There are lots of really good insights to be gained, and many writers actually put forth an honest effort and really enlighten us, then there are others who are lazy, seemingly look only at the numbers and not the whole picture, and make too bold of proclamations.
I, for one, look forward to a lot more goals scored from this team, and I bet the defence contribute more as a while than they did last season too, based on systems change alone.
Oh, and Giordano continues to be criminally underrated. If anyone watches the Flames play, I don't see how you can come up with the assertion that Hamilton was the Flames best defensmen. It is Giordano by a mile.
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