Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
To build on this, I'd scale up the scouting in Europe - not just Sweden/Finland, but Germany, Denmark, Switzerland - obscure guys in lower leagues who have one thing they do really well, and see if you can't turn them into players.
I'd also stay away from college FAs. I've been following this team closely since 2001 - I cannot recall a single one ever amounting to so much as a bit player.
Give those slots to guys who might not be great defensively, or who might not come from powerhouse nations, but who have something you can't teach. Whether it's speed, hands, vision, breakouts, PP QB, IQ - the farm should be a bit of an island of misfit toys where you hone that thing they're good at while teaching them to play D.
Quit being fooled by Connor Mackey and Spencer Foo and the laundry list of seat-fillers who pass through each year.
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I that's a bit of "what have you done for me lately" thinking. If the Flames had started out ignoring college FAs then we would have missed out on Otto, Patterson & Macoun.
The Flames have also had a lot of guys who are good at 1 thing, but can't put any of the other things together - Baertschi, Nakladal come to mind.
The thing about those obscure, lower league Europeans is that if they don't move up quickly it's easier for them to go back and play in Europe. Generally no big loss, but no better than college FAs.
At the end of the day you can scout the hell out of all these areas. It's just spaghetti at the wall.