Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
You're not wrong but IMO this organization needs to do a better job still at keeping some of those spots open in the bottom 6 for young guys to get the chance to develop at the NHL level.
Sometimes you need to play at the NHL level to learn how to be an NHLer...it's like Sutter said about d-men. You need 300 NHL games before you really learn how to be an NHL d-man...and you can't learn that in the AHL.
It's the same for the Flames tweener forwards - at some point you need to give them at least a 10-20 game run at the NHL level just to see what's there and let them learn the NHL game.
Personally I would have just much rather have seen Stromgren, Kerins, Honzek, and Morton get the NHL games that Rooney (70), Kirkland (21), Duehr (16), Bishop (6), and Hunt (5) got last year. Even just half of those games would have been 60 NHL games that could have been used to help develop youngsters that instead were used for guys that were never long term solutions for the organization, but were "safer" bets to play in the bottom 6 last year.
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Thank you for conveying my same thoughts on this.
If we're not giving these players with upside regular rotations while we're in a supposed rebuild, when will we?
Some experienced players that move the needle are justified in keeping their ice time and getting priority to draw in. But Rooney and Hunt (and even sometimes Lomberg) are not those guys. The Flames making "safe" call ups instead of ones that serve development (until they were eliminated) is mildly frustrating to me. This team should be in a development mindset, even at the NHL level.
And despite playing it safe they missed the playoffs anyways. I would've much preferred to see Stromgren, Kerins and Honzek rotate in in the final weeks to give them proper experience.
And funny enough, I still believe that if Parekh drew in for that game in Anaheim, they wouldve actually made the dance.
The Flames wouldve ironically been rewarded with precisely the outcome they were aiming for by just trusting their young talent instead of worrying about mistakes and sheltering them.
Reward doesnt come without some risk.
The era of the strict Sutter approach around young players should've been put behind us when we shipped half the team out.