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Originally Posted by ToraToraTora
I think he only really succeeds when he has top tier linemates.
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Originally Posted by Groot
It also might show that Ferland needs high-skill teammates to be effective (when he's on) and he is not getting that in Calgary as a depth signing.
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Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Ferland is a great complimentary player on a good line. He's not useful on a line without a driver.
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There's a lot of revisionist history going on here.
Do people forget that Ferland was arguably the best player in our bottom six in the first half of the 2016-17 season? Playing mostly with the likes of Freddie Hamilton and Lance Bouma?
BEFORE being added to the Gaudreau-Monahan line, Ferland had 8g 7a in 55 GP while averaging only 10:44 of ice time a game.
Take a look at the numbers of any player presently on our roster averaging that kind of ice time, heck those are better totals than James Neal will have after 55 games, and Neal is averaging 15:11 of ice time - almost 50% more. But the actual reality is that Ferland alone had as much production as Czarnik + Hathaway have COMBINED this season averaging roughly the same minutes.
AC's 2016-17 Ferland video was a two-parter where the first half features almost zero Gaudreau or Monahan:
It's fine if people want to say Ferland's scoring slipped as last season wound to a close - but he was hardly the only guy to whom that applied as Backlund, Gaudreau, Frolik, Bennett among others all stopped producing while GG kept going through the motions.
But don't say he was useless without top line teammates. Calgary had the best 4th line in the NHL the last time he didn't play with top line teammates until Ferland was promoted from 4th line to 1st line. And I don't think it's a coincidence that Ferland's play slipped pretty much directly after his injury last year. Hockey players hide injuries all the time to look tough.
Adding Ferland to any team's bottom six will increase offensive production almost surely. No, he won't produce at a 30 goal pace. You don't do that playing bottom six minutes. But he would probably produce at rates similar to Bennett and Jankowski. You wouldn't add that to your team, with the knowledge that he can also produce at a 30 goal pace if you bump him up the lineup?