I am enjoying the Gridin show. Flames have 3 potential franchise core players:
Wolf
Parekh
Gridin
I will add Wyttenbach to that potential.
What is interesting is what do you do with Cooley? He is quickly making a case for himself as a franchise goalie. He is a terrific problem to have.
Well done Conroy and the scouting team - both pro and amateur. The pro scouting used to be so such a weakness, and for way too many years I have seen too many: "Fire Sigalet" posts. Cooely is a beast. Whitecloud looks like a cornerstone on the defensive end. Ditto for Bahl. Maatta was a useless player - but somehow he has been great. Flames have really done their homework with Strome - what a great leader.
Keeping Coleman at the deadline was a fantastic move. He is such a great leader.
As for the tank - don't worry, there are a lot of hard games. I will be surprised if the Flames don't finish 2nd last. Even if they don't, I 100% agree with Jiri's post earlier in this thread - 3-8 or so seems like a single tier to me, or almost a single tier. If the Flames end up picking 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th, they will be picking a cornerstone player. Whether it is Verhoeff, Carels, Reid, Malhotra, Bjorck, Smits - potentially a couple of other prospects pushing to be in this range - they will be bringing in a cornerstone. I'll take that - plus a decent shot at the lottery.
What a play by Gridin. He really does remind me a lot of Bure for some reason. Just so hard to contain with his strength, skating, IQ and shot. Underrated playmaker too as we are finding out. He will be a top-line player for the Flames for the next decade.
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