Quote:
Originally Posted by Toonage
Unpopular opinion but I think you can find another Lindholm in free agency / trade route in a few years if need be.
The Flames crafted their #1 centre out of a RW. He doesn't necessarily make his teammates better. You can afford to roll the dice on moving him at this point.
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He's always been a center he was just misused, mostly by one particular coach.
The Flames took a center who wasn't being used as a center and didn't use him as a center. A huge part of the reason he was frustrated in Carolina was because he was used as a RW and not C. He came to Calgary, to play for the same coach who refused to put him at C and he played RW. He did great on the 1st line with Gaudreau and Monahan because he's good at the hockey but he really excelled once he was finally given his chance at center by Darryl Sutter. He took that chance and proved his old coaches wrong.
He was drafted as a center, played his rookie year as a C under coach Kirk Muller, then Bill Peters came in and decided Elias was a RW. He stuck four years as a RW under Peters and then he was traded to Calgary where, oh look, Peters was the new Flames coach and Elias was stuck on RW. Ward tried to give him small trials at C here and there but not long enough to gain traction. Sutter came in and gave him an extended chance and he's been at his natural position ever since.