Quote:
Originally Posted by Royle9
I'm too now in the boat that I think we could afford to flip Frolik for picks and let one of our young guys come up. Nothing against Frolik, I just feel his days are slowly getting behind him and I'd rather give the kids a shot, save some salary and I feel we wouldn't notice it much. We've got depth at bottom 6 RW now in Foo and Czarnik
On the D side of things if we could flip stone for picks as well I think it free's up room for Andersson to slot in as he's more than ready. I'd also like to see Valimaki get a shot to make the left side.
Chances of this happening are pretty slim though:
Gaudreau - Monahan - Neal
Tkachuk - Jankowski - Lindholm
Bennett - Backlund - Frolik -> Would prefer Czarnik here
Mangiapane/Dube - Ryan - Czarnik
Hathaway, Lazar
Giordano - Brodie
Hanifin - Hamonic
Kulak - Stone —> Would like this to be Valimaki - Andersson
Prout
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The issue that I have with this and I believe most around the team seem to adhere to this as well is that the season is long and you need guys who are experienced as professional hockey players, living the life day in day out, coming to the rink, off ice routines and training, etc. I think that is why the flames likely keep both Stone and Frolik around because chances of one of teh young guys hitting the wall hard are way higher than either of those two falling off a cliff (granted, Frolik is close).
I suppose you could rotate the young guys in but there is something to the notion of making the young guys earn their spot from a vet and that competition is always good. The flames also got through most of last season very injury free (until it was over anyways), especially on the blue line, and thats another reason to keep a guy like frolik around. I'd much rather have him out there moving up and down the lineup if we get hammered with injuries than a bunch of kids who might not know what they are doing and get overwhelmed, like you saw from the team north of us.