Quote:
Originally Posted by TOfan
How about St. Louis? Do you consider ROR to be an elite C? He’s good, no question, but what would he be on the Oilers? 3C? How about Winnipeg? Washington? Pittsburgh? LA? TB? Toronto?......point being, he’s not a hands done 1C on quite a few teams. He wasn’t a 1C in Buffalo or Colorado when he left those teams either.
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Well ROR is definitely an elite 2 way shutdown center. So I’d put him right at the top on the Flames. He won the Selke, the Conn Smythe and the Byng. He’s hard to play against, barely takes any penalties, wins a million faceoffs and plays in the guts of the game, he’s legit. I mean, sure it took him a little while to reach his potential, but St. Louis also had a great foundation for him to shine whereas Buffalo and Colorado didn’t, they were just a collection of rebuilding pieces with no leadership, no direction and no identity.
Make no mistake though, having an elite #1 center or even better, an elite 1-2 punch is the core of your team’s core. They win you championships whereas the Flames have proven for decades on end that building around wingers peaks at early playoff exits or none at all. I don’t think it’s a coincidence either that the top 3 teams of this division also happen to have the top #1 centers. It is unquestionably the way you build your team and every GM in the NHL should know this.
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