Quote:
Originally Posted by mrchristy31
Agreed, if they expose Tanev over Gio I will lose it.
I love the old adage "the team owes it to a player to protect them, not trade them, etc." You know what the player is owed, the millions of dollars they already got paid to play a sport for a living...........beyond that every decision should be based on the best interest of the team.
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Before you start getting outraged, I will point out that Hamonic and Hamonic were awesome together for a while at first as well, and I remember the talk was that the Flames had 2 first pairing pairings.
I think that this is the time to start talking about the expansion draft, but there are also many slots that will remain open to see where some players end up at the end of the season/playoffs.
For instance, Bennett just got moved to the top line in the 'blender' last game - will he stick there? If he clicks with Monahan and Gaudreau, will he suddenly displace someone else?
Dube hasn't been very effective so far this season. If this continues and he has a miserable season (like Jankowski for instance - people forget that Jankowski had 2 straight seasons of being a good player, followed by a miserable season that saw him being left unqualified). If Dube has this sophomore slump, will he be left exposed?
If left exposed, Giordano would be claimed immediately. I think there were 3 reasons that Vegas decided to select Engelland:
1) Everyone else available from the Flames sucked
2) Engelland was a playable defencemen and would stick up for teammates
3) Leadership
Maybe Giordano will bounce back. Perhaps it is just not clicking with Andersson. Perhaps he is getting old and he is regressing - I think how he does this season will really impact if he remains protected or not. I do think if he is left exposed, he is the guy taken right away. He has been lauded as a leader now in the NHL for a number of seasons.
If there is a good enough player being exposed, I do think that the Flames will probably just spend assets to get Seattle to select a player that isn't in the Flames' plans.