Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
No, they won't. Go back through the past 20 years and show me an instance where a D+7 player was traded, let alone for anything of value.
You have no logic. You look at his point totals in the AHL and go derp derp derp. The road to the NHL is paved with guys who could score in the AHL and never got a sniff of the show. Just look the past few years.
Andrew Poturalski (1.42 PPG), TJ Tynan (1.58 PPG), Seth Griffith (1.25 PPG), Sam Anas (1.11 PPG), Reid Boucher (1.26 PPG), Gerry Mayhew (1.24 PPG), all small undersized players who never amounted to a hill of beans.
I wouldn't do anything out of the ordinary. I would treat him like you do with a prospect that is D+7. TBH, it doesn't matter what they do. He's going to be UFA at the end of the season regardless of what they do. The thing they have to do is decide if he has an NHL future. Sutter's comments have me pretty confident they don't believe there is a future there.
He's done everything in his power to make the NHL, and it doesn't appear that is enough for the Flames, especially the coach of the NHL team. Don't blame me that the NHL is a game for big men, and that we have a coach who really likes the beef in the lineup. I can't tell you why they drafted him. I wouldn't have gone near him. The risk was too large, even for a late pick. They must have thought they could catch the Gaudreau lightning in a bottle. Not a great strategy IMO.
It only took him four years in the AHL to prove anything and a fifth to step to the fore. Is Calgary ready to make a similar investment at the NHL level for him? Again, the step to the NHL is a massive jump. It's why the AHL is filled with small players who have scored at that level and never amounted to anything at the NHL level.
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With all due respect Lanny, I don't understand why you give such absolutist doom-&-gloom takes on some topics. Maybe the situation is as hopeless as you make it seem. Then again, maybe it isn't. How about leaving some room for optimism and hope?
And what investment are you talking about? A team struggling to score brings a skilled forward to the big club for a couple of weeks to see if he can help the situation. If he can't, you just send him down and lose nothing. No harm done.