Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Yeah neither Granlund or Baertschi were long for this organization as neither were going to get the ice time they get in Vancouver and neither has ever been able to play more than 69 games in a season. I hold nothing against those players as the Flames did them a favour as Vancouver is probably the best place both of those players could have gone as they have had abysmal forward depth and one of the few teams where they could get a chance to play a regular shift.
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I feel like Granlund gets shortchanged a little, as I think he is a decent NHL player and so I question the notion that is sometimes put forward that he wasn't good enough to play at forward for the Flames. Last year Brouwer, Lazar, Shore, Stajan, Jagr, Stewart, Hathaway, Glass all played a number of games for the Flames at forward. I think Granlund could have played ahead of those guys. Granted the Granlund trade was made in 2016, but a look at the forwards at that time isn't much better (Colborne, Stajan, Jones, Jooris, Bouma, Raymond, Bollig)
Personally I think the trade was more about the Flames seeing something in Shinkaruk that wasn't there. And being locked into some bad decisions and bad contracts with the existing forwards.
The Baertschi trade is different. He simply wasn't developing here and Flames were willing to get whatever they could.