Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
Pasternak is by far their best player and Debrusk is their second highest scorer right now. Bergeron and Marchand are proven and their team might not win anything but many of their older players have been to 3 cup finals together and won 1.
McAvoy and Pasternak are their franchise players and are 24 and 26 respectively
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Having a legit cup contending team, and actually winning the cup, are two different things.
Since GMs only have control over how they build their team, and no control over whether their team actually goes on to win the cup, the best
any GM can do is achieve the former and then hope for the latter. The Bruins are clearly legit contenders this year and the Penguins also appear to be.
The Bruins key forwards are Pasta, Bergeron, Marchand, Krejci, Hall.
And I don't really get what you're trying to argue anyway. If 3 or 4 of your highest paid players are in their 30s, it means you can't win a cup?
Look, while the Flames going forward will have some guys in their 30s locked up under big contracts, they also have players currently 26 or younger that should play big roles in the coming years such as Ruzicka, Andersson, Hanifin, Kylington (hopefully!), Mangiapane, Dube, Pelletier, Zary, Wolf, Coronato (hopefully!), Porier. Maybe Schwindt and Zohorna too. Didn't include Phillips as it doesn't look like he's ever going to get a fair shake here.
To me, the age of key players matters far, far less than the quailty of those players. Huberdeau has the 3rd most points in the NHL over the 3 seasons prior to this one. Kadri and Weegar have also had good NHL careers thus far. So really it's not an issue of age, it's more an issue of getting these guys to play to their potential. If they do, the Flames will be fine. If they don't, the team will continue to struggle.