Quote:
Originally Posted by Joborule
I asked this in the PGT for the last game, but will ask here. Which other teams in the NHL have more top 6 players than the Flames? What makes each of those players top 6? Flames have 4 out of six I think we would agree. So there's two on the top line that don't fit the bill, but is that really the case? Do other teams that make the playoffs each have 6 players that qualify as top 6?
I feel that we may be overblowing the notion of not having two other players to make the team scoring lines more complete. I feel that the only teams that feature 5 or 6 players that are considered 'top 6' by CP's criteria are extremely stack. Granted, it is something that should be attained still, but may be unrealistic in this salary cap landscape.
Flames have the ability to spread out 4 top tier talents amongst two lines. They can form combinations that have them as pairs between the two lines, with a fill in player to complete the lines, or overload the top line with three of them (which they are doing), and put all the onus on one player to carry the two others on the line.
I think what teams typically have when they have two scoring lines, is two strong centres that are running their lines. With splitting Lindholm and Monahan up so they can be the centre for their own lines, Flames have ideally two good centres to run their lines. If Monahan could get his head out of his ass, and start making #### happen again, that could be the difference of having two effective scoring lines then. Because the roster does have players that could play along with Monahan and be positive contributors. They can be your Ferland's and Glencross's whereas on their own they aren't gonna make a difference, but with linemate(s) that can dictate play, can light up the lamp.
So I don't feel the issue with the Flames is not having another top 6 player to bring the number up to 5 on the team. I think it's moreso that the top players aren't preform as they're expected to anymore aside from Lindholm.
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I would say most of the league would agree Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk and Lindholm are top 6 players and it ends there. Backlund and Frolik are not top 6 material anymore so we have 4/6. We have two top line left wingers in Gaudreau/Tkachuk a second line center in Monahan and a potential top line C or RW in Lindholm.
We still need that bonafide 1C and another RW in my opinion. We’re in year 6 of the original rebuild so it’s at the point where what we see is what we get. Currently this team looks like an 8th/9th seed team... We can clearly see that they way overachieved last year until the ASG when they got exposed. If we sell high now on some top end pieces we could really accelerate a rebuild and with Tre’s drafting I would trust him to do it.
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