Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Sure, as I said, you never know. And it sounds like you agree with me.
If Huska wants to win then having a 4th line full of tweeners an AHL guys like Kirkland really doesn’t move the needle, so if a rookie looks better why wouldn’t he put Pospisil or that rookie or whoever might be “above” 4th line minutes there and give the 4th line more minutes/take pressure off the other lines?
Dallas being a contender just backs my position. We don’t have the top end talent Dallas does and yet they still roll 4 lines and give their 4th line decent minutes and actual responsibility. If they can do it, surely the Calgary Flames top 10 players are not so incredible that a couple of them can’t play on the 4th line and make room for a rookie who outplays them. As you said, we don’t even have 4 true centers, so should one emerge from the rookies they’ll make room. Team wants to win after all.
If Backlund is your sticking point then keep him on the third line and make the 4th line a 3b scoring line. Problem solved, and just semantics for what I was proposing anyway.
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But Huska is the coach, and his job is to coach to win...he controls ice time.
Conroy is the GM, he is the one that needs to plan the current vs future of this team. Huska doesn't need to trade someone to help with the log jam and create an opportunity to give more ice to someone and give yourself a true evaluation of that player. That's Conroy's job, we are discussing what Conroy should do, not what we think Huska's lines should be. I'm just brining up Huska as when it's time to win a tight game, Backlund will get more ice than most. Don't count on him to bench Backlund if he is the best we got to stop elite players.
Conroy has the following players on short term deals.
Zary - more than likely
Frost - 2 years
Farabee - 3 years
Klapka - 2 years
He also has some young players in the AHL that have proven they deserve a crack.
Zary is rumored to have been offered a bridge. He is hasn't signed. Maybe he will but it's a risk for Zary to sign short term if the Flames are going to play him 13 a night for 2 more years and he doesn't get a true crack to prove himself.
Klapka might be something, might not. But we may never know if he plays 4th line for the next 2 years.
Frost might have growth left in him, we probably won't know if he plays 13 a night. He did get top PP so he probably gets a good crack
Farabee - might be a Coleman replacement, but who knows if he is playing 4th line.
Then there is trade value of players. If the plan is to trade Coleman and Backlund when you can, value is going down if you play them on the 4th line.
This whole idea that everyone will do well playing even minutes will not work and I really doubt Huska manages the lines that way either.