Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
Congarts to Johnny on 500. Hell of a game he had. I've always seen his entire career with the Flames as gravy for the most part. 4th round picks aren't supposed to play a single game in the NHL, let alone 500. I'd be curious to see the actual number of 4th rounds picks with >500 NHL games played in league history. I don't imagine it's very long. I thought if he did play in the NHL, he was supposed to top out as a skilled middle 6 winger who could play mostly on the PP and be lucky to put up 40 points in his prime.
Instead he played on the 1st line almost immediately (took 4-5 games into his career to be fixture on the top line). He became the de facto face of the franchise, an Art Ross contender one season, 4th in Hart voting. Played in a couple all-star games. A superstar at times.
Yet he catches so much flack for the team faltering in both the regular season and post season. While it's not ideal to have an undersized winger to carry the team, he HAS in fact done so at various points and for extended periods of time. It's a complete failure by management to force him to carry the team on his shoulders when they should have built a proper team around him properly.
I think if he can find his groove with Sutter's style, he'll be fine going forward. He's not one of the players I look down upon when it comes to effort. Seems like he's also one of the few who genuinely hates to lose. Often when he's faltering I think it's more so because he lacks the skillset to play a more rugged grinding style which some team can impose upon Calgary. At the skilled game he's obviously great.
Will be interesting to see what the plans are for him when the inevitable changes occur next season.
|
Gaudreau is the first in the last 10 years but there are lots of 4th round players who have played 500, about 20 in the 10 years before Gaudreau, Brodie is one of them.