Quote:
Originally Posted by stemit14
It will be interesting to see if Conroy takes a different approach next season when it comes to short-term vets and/or PTOs. It’s early in the season still so things could absolutely change but, so far, most of the upcoming UFAs that we all assumed would be traded by the upcoming TDL are likely not to return much. Obviously Mantha is done for the season so that’s just bad luck but he was not trending to return much in a trade. Kuzmenko is not lighting it up and he likely would be tough to trade for anything of value - and he would likely require full retention in any trade. Barry looks like the odd man out on defence and will also likely not return much at all. The only upcoming UFA that could result in a decent return at this point is Vladar.
If Conroy looks at how this year went, does he bother signing players with the intention of likely trading them at the deadline? I guess they also serve as depth options but I think they should be increasing the number of younger players on the team next year. I hope they will have roster spots available for guys like Klapka, Honzek, Poirier, Parekh or Brz to make the team… or whichever other younger players impress in camp or on the Wranglers.
I just think the flames will already have potential trade chips for next year’s deadline (Andersson and/or Coleman). And I think they have plenty of young players ready to compete internally for roster spots rather than sign vets to take those spots or create competition in camp. I know the old saying of “have to steal a spot from a vet” but the reality we see in the NHL is that a young player can out-perform a vet and still have to wait for the spot to become available due to injury. The spots do eventually become available because injuries happen but I would rather skip the wait and see the young players battle each other for those spots next year.
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I agree with what you said. I think in net and on D the plan would probably work. Forward is a different story though. The organization is very light on offensive players. Might have to trade some goalie or D depth to get it.