Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
Coleman is a two-time cup winner, a great defensive forward who chips in offense, and was one of the most sought-after free agents this year. The consensus seemed to be that he would get north of $6M/yr, but we got him for free (TB paid a first) and below $5M. He plays with grit, and is a leader. This may be the FA steal of the year, to go with the other two steals from last year (Marky and Tanev). Does he automatically get us a cup? Of course not, but he definitely moves the needle. The deficiencies in our backend might move that needle back, but our group of forwards are better this year than last.
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A lot rides on some bounce back seasons (Monahan, Tkachuk, Andersson) and some younger players taking another step or 2 (Hanifin, Dube, Mangi, Valimaki, Mackey, Andersson again).
But even though I know this board and fanbase overall seems to hate every decision the Flames make lately (and justifiably to some degree I would say), I don't hate the Lewis / Richardson additions on the 4th line. Coleman seems like he'll be great as you said. Vladar sounds like a opportunistic addition that could be a steal, Zadorov intrigues me, but Gudbranson is the head-scratcher for me... though it's hard to say definitively how the D is going to look given the number of NHL bodies currently in the mix.