Alright, alright, alright. After a summer of largely ignoring the Kevin Rooney signing — there was a lot of other stuff going on, you might've heard — I finally had my first opportunity to watch the guy in a Flames game last night.
He was great. Excellent, even. Someone mentioned a Barclay Goodrow comparison to me, while my mind immediately went to Garnet Hathaway. He fit in like a glove next to Backlund and Coleman and helped that line dominate.
Rooney is coming off a year in New York where his line was absolutely flattened at both ends of the ice. Before that, he was able to carve out a niche as a strong suppressor with the Devils, where he played with Coleman.
The preseason is the preseason. Tanner Glass had a great camp once upon a time. Rooney might not be any good when the games start to matter. But ... after finally taking a closer look at him — and seeing those wheels on him — I think there's a chance he could represent a decent step up from the underwhelming depth players the Flames have had since Hathaway left as a UFA.
I wrote more about this here ...
https://flamesnation.ca/news/kevin-r...cklund-coleman