Even if Arnold is at best a bottom 6 guy I feel he is potentially very important to the future of the team.
Teams with plugs and goons in there bottom 6 rarely go very far while champions have their Andrew Shaw's, Dwight King's. Gregory Campbell's, Kris Draper's Stephane Yelle's etc etc. Diverse talents that can play multiple roles like shutdown, agitator, faceoff specialist, top 6 injury replacement.
I look at Anaheim's bottom 6 last year and I see an issue. Tim Jackman, Emerson Etem, Jiri Sekac, Nate Thompson Tomas Fleischman and so on are all fairly one-dimensional. They needed more Rakells and Coglianos to get by. Shaw. Versteeg, Kruger, Bickel, Desjardins etc are far more diverse in their skill set.
If Calgary is a cup contender in 3-4 years who are our effective bottom 6ers? Backlund probably and then who? It is easily to trade and sign bottom 6 forwards but the truly effective ones are almost as hard to get as the top guys. When i look at potential bottom 6 players with diverse talents in our system I don't see enough. Ferland yes, Jooris maybe, Colborne maybe, Granlund possibly, Carroll big if, Hathaway big if, Elson probably not. But I look at Arnold and I see a really decent chance he can be one of those guys.
When I look at the top 4 D of this possible cup champ 3-4 years from now I see Brodie and Hamilton as almost certain, Giordano as probable and a large number of guys as the a potential number 4. Russell, Wotherspoon, Kylington, Culkin, Kulak, Hickey, Morrisson, Andersson and maybe even Rafikov.
I like Andersson. It was a good pick. I'm happy to have him but when people say top 4 D upside trumps bottom 6 forward I think that is always true in my fantasy pool but if I'm building a champion I need some effective bottom 6 forwards and I really like the look of Arnold.
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