Quote:
Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper
The only thing hurting him right now is the pressure/expectations that a very (small) group of wishful fans are putting on him. There is a fair share "smaller" and other players that have earned and progressed their game on the team currently. There is no reason he deserves to have the opportunities handed to him while other players had to grab hold and secure their own.
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Don’t get it twisted, I don’t think anybody here thinks Phillips is the saviour that is going to save the Flames season…not even Scorp.
There is probably a 90% chance that Phillips is a guy who is a good offensive producer in the AHL, but won’t ever be an NHLer.
But there is a time that comes when a prospect has learned all he can learn in the AHL, and you need to give him a run of NHL games to learn the game at the next level.
There is no doubt in my mind that the line between “NHLer” and “Career AHLer” is actually very thin, and sometimes if you don’t give a player a chance to learn at the next level you actually stunt their development at some point.
Over the last 4 seasons Phillips has played in 164 AHL games. Gawdin has played in 171. More time at that level isn’t going to teach them what they need to be NHLers.
Gawdin and Phillips are 1st and 3rd in AHL scoring for players U-25 over the last three seasons, they have been 1st line players on that team the entire time. They have earned more of a look.
I’m not sure the Flames aren’t wrong about how they’ve handled our prospects, and Tampa Bay is a good example to me.
Look at Ross Colton, he was never a guy that lit up the AHL, 76 points in 131 AHL games is production worse than both Gawdin and Phillips.
But somehow the Tampa Bay Lightning have found a way to play him 70 games the last two seasons, and this year he’s filled in admirably for them and has 19 points in 40 games, mostly being used in a 4th line role.
19 points is more than Brad Richardson, Tyler Pitlick, Trevor Lewis, and Brett Richie have combined for all season (13 points)
I’m not sure what organization the Flames want to emulate but somehow the best organization in the league seems to be able to work guys like Colton (0.58 AHL PPG), Joseph (0.75 AHL PPG), Raddysh (0.69 AHL PPG), Katchouk (0.54 AHL PPG) into their lineup year after year.
Going back further Yanni Gourde was a small guy that is about Phillips size, his career AHL numbers (0.66 PPG) weren’t any better than Phillips, but Tampa gave him a shot and he was great for them. Wonder if the San Jose organization regrets letting him leave.
Or going back again how about Tampa being the first organization to give Jonathan Marchessault a shot in the NHL after he had great AHL career numbers (0.86 PPG). Wonder if Columbus regrets that they let him leave their organization after only playing him in 2 whole NHL games.
Tampa Bay is the class of the NHL over the last 5 years, and they consistently give their own young AHLers a shot instead of signing below replacement level forwards.
So forgive me if I get frustrated that the Flames prefer to sign the Nordstrom, Ritchie, Richardson, and Lewis’s of the world, instead of imitating a franchise like Tampa Bay and giving a look to guys like Gawdin (0.75 AHL PPG), Phillips (0.76 AHL PPG), Ruzicka (0.67 AHL PPG), Mackey (0.59 PPG as a dman), or even Pospisil (0.55 AHL PPG). Pelletier too of course but he’s only played 30 AHL games, so I get keeping him down a little longer (although it would be a lot like the Kings calling up Toffoli in 2014)
Funniest part is even when Sutter won his cups it was with young teams. The roster for Darryls first cup win in LA had 2 regular players (>10 playoff games) over 30 (Mitchell and Scuderi), and 7 players under 25 (Doughty, Voynov, Martinez, Lewis, Nolan, King, Kopitar)
And even his second cup team added a bunch of fresh new youngsters (Toffoli, Pearson, Clifford) who were all under the age of 22.
Darryl’s best successes have been with young teams (04 Flames were a young team too), not by filling up the bottom of the roster with aging, low upside, provide nothing on the ice veterans. Good thing they are all so good in the room though.