[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

"That" was exactly what Quennville did the minute he got his hands on the player. If "that" is an absurdist notion, it's indicative of a lot of what ails not only the Flames organization, but the media and fanbase here. We're so determined to not be the Oilers and Oilers fans and Oilers media, that we're satisfied with sheer mediocrity.



Stajan was a better center than Jankowski.

Jankowski was the fourth best center on the team. Well, actually, he was the sixth best center on the team, as Bennett and Lindholm were always superior at the position yet stapled to the wing.

Ergo, the Jankowski line was the de facto fourth line because centers impact the game a lot more than wingers by virtue of the touches they not only get, but are able to create.



He only played with Backlund as a rookie. And he produced like a second liner in his rookie season despite actually only playing with Backlund for about half of that season.



During the regular season? He didn't play much with Lucic, Mangiapane, or Dube at all last year outside of a handful of games where Ryan was injured. I think out of any regular on the roster last year he's had the least amount of time with Mangiapane, though I'm just going by recollection.

Janko, Reider and Zac Rinaldo were his most common linemates. By such an extreme extent that he barely saw icetime away from them.




The vast majority of the players Bennett played with as a Flame either

- Barely found a home on another team's fourth line
- Barely found a PTO
- Were out of the NHL within a year of playing with Bennett
- In the case of guys like Rinaldo, probably wouldn't be top nine forwards in the AHL.



Brouwer was AHL-caliber. That he didn't play in the AHL was due to past success alone.



Theo Fleury was not a center.
Andrew Mangiapane is not a center, either, before you go there.

Mikael Backlund is a center, and didn't exactly earn his way up, unless you call the team literally blowing it up and handing him the top spot with no other centers on the roster "earning it"

Dillon Dube, probably is a center and isn't exactly earning his way up. Despite being the fastest forward on the roster, and a player whose skillset seems tailor-made for the center position, we've done exactly to him what we did to Sam Bennett - create a glass ceiling where if he's not succeeding on the wing, he has no role on the team.

And there you go. Theo Fleury was drafted as a centre and played a lot of centre with the Flames. For a while he was second on the team in FO wins (after Otto).