Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
Kuznetsov 1
Poirier 0
Solovyov 15.
Those are the number of games that each prospect has played at the NHL level.
...
|
Overall I do not disagree with what you are saying but I think my reaction is to swing harder into graduating prospects in a "retool" season where we are close to the point of wasting our D prospects. Every year it is the same conversation about signing a depth D vet and how the prospects will get a spot if they can beat the vet but then the Flames never give the player a shot because they need to stay in the AHL and "get more minutes".
It isn't just the team that says it, posters on this board are conditioned after decades to say the same thing. It is almost as if there is something wrong with the idea of leaving a spot open for promoting prospects and acknowledging that there is enough competition between the 5 or 6 prospects in the organization that all want to graduate.
At this point, I doubt any of Kuznetsov, Poirier, or Solovyov will gain anything from more time in the AHL and the Flames are unlikely to discover anything amazing from giving ice time to Hanley, Bean, or Miromanov. It becomes a lose/lose situation where one really starts to question what the heck the management group is doing developing these prospects for years and then never giving them room to graduate.
In response to this situation, I would use this year to get aggressive with promoting prospects and following through with the youth messaging that Conroy said he is doing. Weegar (550 GP), Bahl (221 GP), Pachal (138 GP), and Hanley (246 GP) are enough anchors / vets for the team. Let the other 4 spots go to Kuznetsov, Poirier, Solovyov, and Parekh. While they shelter the rookies they can run 4 vets and 2 rookies in a game and try to get to more balanced distribution by Christmas.
If they do not learn to promote prospects in the D group now then how do we expect to promote guys like Brzustiewicz, Grushnikov, Mews or Morin in the future.