Quote:
Originally Posted by Funkhouser
Would have been an interesting 'What If?' for sure. In this scenario, I will assume the rumored Canes package was chosen instead of Florida (Necas, 2023 1st - turned out to be LW Bradley Nadeau).
Our lineup today would be:
Zary - Necas - Sharongovich
Coleman - Backlund - Coronato
Pelletier - Monahan - Pospisil
x - x - x
Bahl - Anderson
x - x
x - x
Wolf
We would be better off offensively, worse off defensively. We would have a young centre in the mix (Necas). We would have more depth in the system based on 2 years of poorer performance (+Nadeau). We would have 3 1st round picks this year instead of 2.
I agree this would have been the right approach.
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Yeah. And there would be the real potential of having one of Bedard, Celebrini, Smith, Carlsson or Fantilli in the system assuming the flames bottomed out in 2023 and 2024.
Like you said, it’s an interesting “What If” but you never know how things will go. I’m just speaking to the tough spot the rebuild plan has right now because Wolf is already a top 5 goaltender in the league. Of all the positions to have a star player in, that’s the one that can pretty much single-handedly keep a team from bottoming out. Pretty much everything else on the roster has been designed for a bottom finish (lack of top line players, poor depth on defence and low team salary). But Wolf is too good to let that happen.
It’s a good problem to have I guess because I’m very happy the flames have Wolf. It just makes the direction of the team difficult to navigate. The team would need to be further gutted down by trading Andersson, Coleman and Kadri to counteract Wolf’s elite numbers if he keeps them up next year.
Even then, Zary’s production could take a step and reach or exceed Kadri’s current production (replacing the loss of Kadri). And Coronato already exceeds Coleman’s offence. Guys like Klapka, Stromgren or Honzek could replace the production of Coleman next year as well. There is no player in the system likely ready to take on Andersson’s role as early as next season unless someone like Brz, Poirier, Solovyov or Parekh take a big leap with an opportunity.
It kind of ties back to what Pinder was saying… if the flames re-sign Andersson and keep Kadri and Coleman, what’s the expection/hope for next season? I imagine it’s to be pretty much what they are now. You could plan for Zary and Coronato to take on bigger roles but that will likely be at the expense of opportunities for say Kadri or Sharangovich so the production likely evens itself out. What’s the step to being more than a bubble team if the plan is not to bottom out next year? Or is it to just be a bubble team?