[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Top-20 D, no.

Top-30 F, maybe. Huberdeau was more productive than Gaudreau over the previous four seasons - I’m more willing to bet this disastrous trade/roster/coaching staff are the reason he looked lost all year vs him forgetting how to be awesome, and this time next year, it’s probably going to be the case that there aren’t 30 forwards in the NHL better than Jonathan Huberdeau.

But he sure wasn’t top -30 this year.


As for the Cinderellas, you nailed it - the 2004 Flames were the least talented group to make finals this century. Worse than Anaheim, worse than Montreal.

Except, they had a top-3 (for a moment, arguably top-1) player in the world, and a goalie who, though he wasn’t quite 33/39/30 level, was certainly top-5 at his position. I can’t think of too many other guys from this era that I’d start over 34.

Those are two pretty significant equalizers, especially when you give them to a coach like Darryl.

When you have that, plus Regehr anchoring the back end in an era when you could do unchecked violence to a man so long as the puck was in his vicinity, you see how a group with the Rocket Richard winner + not a single other 20g scorer (or 50 point player) nearly (did) win the Stanley Cup.

The 96 Oilers were pretty low on talent after Pronger. Iginla was miles better than any forward on their roster, Kipper was better than their goaltenders, and after Pronger the Flames had a better blueline group.