Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
I would still trade Mantha. Flames will be drafting a lot of good talent up front in the next couple of years, and I would rather make room for those pieces. While I acknowledge that having Huberdeau rebound is a positive, I will also argue that if he is ever going to rebound, it is just as likely - if not more likely - that he will do so alongside better talents than Mantha down the road.
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I think this is a neat thing to think about, actually. We've seen Huberdeau with better (perhaps arguably) talents before. Whether it be Kadri or Lindholm or whoever. Chemistry is one of those things - when it's there, it's there and when it's not, it doesn't matter what level of talent the players are. I do sort of agree that if the Flames happen to somehow find someone that Huberdeau meshes with so well that Huberdeau is back to being a annual 75+ point player, I'd lean towards doing almost whatever it takes to keep the 2 together. And this is with me believing that yes, players making 10+ million shouldn't be the ones that you cater to in terms of finding linemates and they should be the ones lifting their linemates up, but sometimes things don't work out how they should.
Edit to add that obviously, this is all because at his contract, the Flames absolutely need him to return some sort of value. If Huberdeau was making even 7M, I'm not worried about it. But at 10+, the Flames need him to get back to his former form so they can eventually find him a new team to move him to in exchange for kids better suited to the Flames projected window.