Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Depending on what list you go by that would be two as Monahan made the THN list I believe. If you do the math with of 50 players and 31 teams most teams that's less than two a team so the Flames are slightly better than average and I would go as far as to say on a top 100 list the Flames would likely come out well as Tkachuk and Gio are represented at the very least. The Flames biggest issue is that if you went down the roster from best players to worst their two goaltenders would be ranked amongst their worst players. You can't be considered a serious contender when your goaltending is your weakest position.
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Sure but top 10 in the league is a whole lot different than top 50. So if Flames have an average number of top 50 or top 100 players that means they are about...average? With little representation at the top of those lists.
The concern with this team, in the big picture, has always been whether they have the elite talent necessary to actually contend. Because they have certainly not shown the inclination to overachieve and be greater than the sum of the parts.
So we can crack on Monahan and Gaudreau all we want. I personally think this team tries plenty hard enough, but asking Johnny to be a top 5 player in the league is like asking Bennett to be a 40 goal scorer.
I have never really understood what the vision was for this team to turn into a contender. Yeah there have been some nice trades, for more core pieces, more team control yadda, yadda. More players in your core, or more team control don’t actually win games.
But maybe I’m being overly affected by the bad recent play. There are plenty of posters here who a week ago were saying this team was a contender right now, and just needed an upgrade in goal to cement that status. Maybe they’re right and this is the kind of learning experience that brings them together and finally builds some buy in.