Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
What?
He is a list of defensemen over 26 with the Flames:
Tanev 31
Gudbranson 29
Stone 31
Tanev is not mediocre. Full stop.
Stone is the perfect popcorn muncher and is not in anyone's way.
Gudbranson is a solid NHL defenseman who is better than any of the players you seem to be concerned about.
The Flames organization is full of young defensemen, and they look to be doing a hell of a job of developing them - you know, being the best defensive team in the NHL and all, despite having a very young D core.
But sure, Kinvall might not be able to crack the AHL lineup, so the organization is a failure. Sure.
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Since when has Tanev ever been considered mediocre and the part that you bolded says
both levels of the organization...
Mediocre Vets:
Zadorov (currently in his 7th full NHL season)
Stone (NHL vet)
Desimone (veteran tweener)
Welinski (veteran tweener)
Gravel (veteran tweener)
Poolman (not quite a veteran pro yet, but also not an NHL prospect)
The Flames org essentially has a full d-squad of mediocre veteran defensemen that are taking away opportunities from NHL-ready prospects like Valimaki and Mackey and AHL-ready prospects like Kuznetsov, and Solovyov.
Pushing the NHL-ready guys like Valimaki down to the AHL has an undesirable cascading effect on the org.