One thing that was kind of lost in the early season offensive struggles is that Monahan improved his skating this year.
He’s still not “fast” but in my opinion he’s quicker on the ice and it was noticeable on the OT winner.
Also the depth is at the AHL level now too. We have 4 lines going at the NHL level now, Bennett and Czarnik coming back, and Gawdin and Phillips in the AHL above a PPG.
If the Flames fo end up going to roll 4 deep at Center I wonder how Gawdin would fit in at RW. He’s plays a bit of a tenacious forechecking game that I think would fit with Gaudreau and Monahan.
Not crazy to think that if Flames don’t bring back any of Frolik, Czarnik, Reider, etc next year you could put a young forward on each line.
Tkachuk - Lindholm - Mangiapane
Gaudreau - Monahan - Gawdin
Bennett - Backlund - Phillips
Lucic - Ryan - Dube
Could be an interesting look and you have a true RH shot on each line.
|