Quote:
Originally Posted by Jore
Getting and developing a good centre is a long-standing weakness for this franchise. The best all-arounder they've developed is Backlund (not counting Monahan for obvious reasons), before that it was probably David Moss. Right now the most promising young player who was drafted as a centre, Dube, they're playing on as a 4th line winger (sound familiar?). Unless they're drafting a can't miss centre at 1 or 2 I can't see this organization being able to support and develop a #1 centre internally.
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Well they’re going to have to, because it’s about the only thing they haven’t tried in the last 3 decades. They’ve tried building a successful team on the backs of franchise wingers which ended up with a lot of first round failures or middling finishes. They built strong defense cores most seasons in both the Sutter and Treliving eras which hasn’t made much of a difference. They had an elite Vezina winning goaltender in that time and he hid a lot of this team’s real problems. They’ve had forward depth at times, they’ve tried big teams, gritty teams, small teams, skilled teams, well balanced teams, defense first teams, offense first teams and etc.
But in all that time, what haven’t they had? A true, elite #1 center who stands above the rest or at the very least can compare. The last time the Flames built true strength up the middle was what, probably 1989? Say what, they won the Cup that year? Hmm, it’s almost like having a true #1 center or an elite 1-2 punch up the middle helps you win or something.
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