Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
I will preface this by saying that I DO NOT believe in 'burn it to the ground', or 'scorched earth' rebuilds. I think they usually end up in disaster for years and years and make it difficult to come out of.
I do, however, fully believe that a rebuild was necessary, and have been wanting it for a while now.
I think the defence has been gutted enough. You have to be careful to provide a decent enough environment where everyone can grow. If your defence is too lousy, then it will certainly make it tougher on Wolf to play behind a defence that he can't trust - just like it was for Dubynk in Edmonton until he got out of that organization and won a Vezina. You also need your young D to be sheltered and get brought up the right way. I also think that forwards playing in front of a lousy defensive core also suffer - they end up having to come back too far all the time to help out, the transition suffers and everyone ends up holding their stick a bit too tightly and become afraid of taking any risks just to make sure it doesn't result in the puck going into the back of their own net.
I think in a rebuild, you have to balance it out between extracting as much value for your assets + ensuring you get a decent pick, with providing a good learning environment that will build back up upon itself, rather than continue imploding. I think the defence is there already, especially in case someone gets injured.
Rasmus has 2 more years after this one. His team-friendly deal does carry value which I think would make a return for him even better, but I do think you should probably hold onto him a little longer. I think you reevaluate this next off-season - or at next season's trade deadline at the very earliest.
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I agree regarding your points about sheltering D, and bringing them up the right way. That said, I don't see Andersson as a guy like Tanev that you can throw out in all the toughest defensive matchups. In fact, I think that Andersson is better when he's slightly sheltered on the 2nd pairing.
Personally, I'd love the Flames to find/sign/trade for a couple of stay at home D similar to Tanev. Maybe if we could land one of DeMelo, or Pesce as free agents this summer, or target an RFA like Ryan Lindgren in NYR. If they accomplish that it makes Andersson expendable, because I don't see him fitting into the next Flames core.