Quote:
Originally Posted by AC
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... but it's hard to say definitely how the D is going to look given the number of NHL bodies currently in the mix.
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I agree. I think we'll be more stingy defensively, and we're harder to play against, but I worry about how DS will handle Andersson and especially Valimaki. He was pretty critical of our young D last year, and even went to far as to basically blame the season on them. I don't doubt our D's ability to defend under Sutter, but our offense from the backend was in the bottom third of the league last year WITH Gio-so we definitely need these guys to step up big time in the O zone.
I love the Coleman signing, love the Goalies, I like Zadorov, don't mind Richardson or Lewis, and I'm confident that DS will utilize Gudbranson in a way that will make him look good. If we had any other coach, EG would be a head-scratcher for me too. Just my opinion of course.