Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
There is a lot of hindsight in the Huberdeau conversation.
The Flames (Treliving) and most of the media felt the Flames had done a masterful job of avoiding a downturn with the Gaudreau and Tkachuk departures and were ready to compete for the division once again.
If they knew that wasn't the case, then you don't sign Huberdeau.
If you see it as a complete team ...
Elite goaltender
Deep defense core
Huberdeau replaces Gaudreau
Kadri makes the Flames tough to play against down the middle with Lindholm and Backlund.
Then you don't want to risk Huberdeau walking the next year (Weegar too).
|
They had some decent young players if Sutter would have just been a but less stubborn and a bit more open to youth. And the team didn't realize they wouldn't have Kylington all season when you made that decision which was also a big loss.
Markstrom, Vladar : Should have been a top 10 goaltending tandem.
Andersson, Weegar, Tanev, Kylington, Hanifin, Zadorov, Stone: Should have been a top 5 defensive core but they missed Kylington's skating all season.
Huberdeau, Kadri, Lindholm, Toffoli, Backlund, Coleman, Dube, Mangiapane: Should have been a middle of the pack top 9 and better if Huberdeau was 90+ points as expected.
I'll always wonder what that team looks like if you replace:
Lewis, Lucic, Ritchie, Ritchie with Rooney, Ruzicka, Pelletier, Zary, Duehr, Phillips going right back to that offseason.
The makings of a good team were there...Sutter just needed to adjust his approach a little bit to be a bit more open to youth and creativity...and instead with those other guys leaving he leaned the other way and became even more stubborn.