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Originally Posted by Classic_Sniper
There’s a lot of chatter in here, but I think everyone is sort of dancing around the real problem.
The Florida Panthers built their core around 3 elite studs and then complimented these guys with excellent players around them. Huberdeau is just an offensive dynamo who has proven he can elevate players around him. Ditto for Barkov who may not be as offensively gifted as Huberdeau, but he can drive play on both ends of the ice and will be a perennial Selke winner for years to come.
The Flames conversely, did not rebuild long enough to obtain elite drivers like the Huberdeau’s, the Barkov’s and the Ekblad’s. I’d argue Gaudreau is a comparable, but he doesn’t have that big hulking frame nor does he have a background as a centerman. At his diminutive frame, he’s going to have warts in his game that those other top 3 picks don’t really have.
Had the Flames rebuilt longer and weren’t in such a hurry to just get to average. Maybe we would have the stud pieces that could make get the full potential out of a Sam Bennett or a Troy Brouwer or yes, even a James Neal. It’s not that these failed projects were due to signing or drafting bad players, it might be as simple as the Flames just didn’t have the right core pieces that could elevate the game of these said players.
Your core players are everything. That’s why a team like Tampa Bay can lose an entire 3rd line to free agency or have their superstar on the IR for 2 seasons and not skip a beat.
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For the most part you are right, however no core in the world can help Brouwer and Neal. That’s was a big Treliving’s screw up.
Don’t forget Neal failed with Mcdavid.