Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
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.
|
I never minded the player but with his waiver situation he wasn't good enough to give him a spot in ink, and with that he'd be at best going up and down a bit.
He's not big.
He doesn't win face offs.
His underlying stats are terrible. (career 46.5% CF%), even his relative numbers are negative playing on bad teams
His one big year was with the Sedins and a shooting percentage that was due to fall. It did.
Team control was a good enough reason to take the gamble, paying off or not.
Granlund is an NHL player, but his perch isn't all that much higher than Lazar.