Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
Kadri and Backlund are both excellent mentors. You can see how they've transformed the play of many young forwards.
I also think a lot of posters need to give up on the dream of a tank. I know the Flames not making the playoffs, makes everyone think they are too mid to succeed, but they also tied the record for most points without playoffs. In an 82 game season, they finished 5 points behind the Oilers and 2 points behind the Panthers.
The Flames are also a young team that is likely to get better not worse. Their presence brings more value than a decrease in draft position.
The Flames already traded their #1 center, #1 goalie, #1 RW (Toffoli), and several top 4 d-men. This year was the tank. Wolf emerging is not going to allow a legit tank. Injecting Parekh into the lineup is going to make that harder, as he fills a major hole on the team.
The Flames need an upgrade at centre, or at the very least another centre on Kadri's level. That's likely going to have to come from a trade or free agency, not the tank.
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I do not see it this way. I think outside of Wolf and Coronato this teams best players are the veteran 6 who are all 29-36 years old and none of those guys can expect to get that much better and the youngest of the group in Andersson is likely getting traded.
Sure Coronato and Wolf give us hope and I assume Parekh is going to make an impact sooner than later but this team doesn’t have a ton of young guys who are going to take a massive leap. Maybe Zary if he can stay healthy. Does Sharangovich, or Farabee get back to the players they were the season before last or are they just overpaid middle 6 wingers?
There is not enough talent from the players that need to be better than lead me to think the Flames will be better this coming year vs last. If anything teams will not take them as lightly as they did last year in addition to the fact it is very difficult to repeat the effort they gave last year. A little less effort and teams being more prepared could easily put this team into the bottom 10 next year.
We will see what they do this summer because if they stay the course I suspect they will be worse and not better next year.