5 From me.
Patched a few holes on defence, which is good.
Still, it is a slow bleeding of draft picks.
Brodie is what concerns me right now. If he is not re-signed, then I feel it is going to be a huge loss to this team moving forward. I think he should have been part of a 'hockey deal' of some sort if management feels that he would not re-sign here.
Hopefully the new additions help. I the system is the underlying problem with this team, but hopefully these two defencemen at least help patch up a hole or two.
One thing that I don't like is that they will most certainly play ahead of Kylington and, to a lesser extent, Yelesin. "They are young, plenty of time, etc"? Kylington especially is in such an important part of his development curve learning in the NHL, and shouldn't be sitting out for stretches at a time. I hope he was included on the paper transactions to send him to the AHL. He needs to play. Who here disagrees that Fatenberg was a mistake last season, and that Kylington and/or Valimaki should have been playing in the playoffs instead and gaining valuable experience? I do.
Hopefully things work out, Flames suddenly become a consistent team and go on a hell of a run between tomorrow and the Stanley Cup Finals. Nobody will be disappointed in much at all then, and with this team, who knows what they can or can't do when the start playing consistently again.
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