Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
Nichushkin is not a big add by any means, but this news just piles into the larger feeling I'm having that the flames main competitors have all made substantial improvements this offseason, while the flames have not.
Colorado looks like a much stronger team heading into next season. Vegas also looks potent. Canucks look better albeit still not great. Phoenix has improved.
The cali teams haven't made improvements but their players seem to ebb and flow much more often so we can't discount them.
The oilers are the only team that I can identify in our division that has had a "worse" off season than we have, and that worries me.
|
Eh, given the age of our team, we should anticipate improvements mostly coming from within. Hockey players, partcularly offensive players, peak between 22 and 26 years old. Offensively, the only serious contributors on our 2019-20 roster outside that window are Backlund and Frolik.
It's not as much fun when your team isn't making big siginings and so on, but I think the doom-and-gloom around the Flames offseason is massively overblown.
I predict Nichushkin has a similar season to 2018-19.