Is The GM Going to Address the Center Situation?

[saillias]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

What is a 4th line center playing 6 minutes going to do for the resst of the team?

Ask Stephane Yelle.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Probably a coincidence of management philosophies.

Fletcher didn't believe that our draft picks were high enough to get the obvious top talents, so he went unconventional - US college free agents.

Coates definitely had a thing for prospects who were a little later into their development than an unknown draft pick.

Button's tenure was too short to make a call either way.

Sutter's beliefs are well known and well worn.

Feaster is only in year two, so his long-term strategy is not yet crystalized.

Three years into feasters tenure and the Flames have gone into both drafts he's been a part of with less picks than they had by default.

I don't really have to look much deeper than that.

Edit: Just looking at this again, I don't know how it could be a coincidence over 25 years. The flames haven't once taken a legitimate approach to drafting players. Look where it's gotten them.

[Britflamesfan]

Any body seen the latest update on FN about our prospects and how they have done this season? Does not make good reading at all, other that Jonny the rest have all had bad seasons. This management group still have a long way to go.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Britflamesfan

Any body seen the latest update on FN about our prospects and how they have done this season? Does not make good reading at all, other that Jonny the rest have all had bad seasons. This management group still have a long way to go.

More of our prospects than just Gaudreau have had good seasons, what are you talking about?

[Badgers Nose]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

Ben Street.

What did he do that warranted being sent back down? I thought he played quite well.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Britflamesfan

Does not make good reading at all, other that Jonny the rest have all had bad seasons.

lol wut? Gillies has had an excellent freshman year, Janko and Deblouw have been quite good there too. Wotherspoon looks really good at that point. Brossoit has turned his season around, Arnold is progressing nicely, Culkin and Kulak have easily topped last year's numbers, Sieloff won gold at the WJC and Granlund had a good WJC as well. To say that everybody but Johnny has had a bad seasons is just wrong IMO. Sure, compared to Johnny their numbers don't look spectacular, but most of our prospects have progressed well.

[Britflamesfan]

Originally Posted by devo22

lol wut? Gillies has had an excellent freshman year, Janko and Deblouw have been quite good there too. Wotherspoon looks really good at that point. Brossoit has turned his season around, Arnold is progressing nicely, Culkin and Kulak have easily topped last year's numbers, Sieloff won gold at the WJC and Granlund had a good WJC as well. To say that everybody but Johnny has had a bad seasons is just wrong IMO. Sure, compared to Johnny their numbers don't look spectacular, but most of our prospects have progressed well.

I am not going to cut and paste just spend 2 mins and have a quick look at FN its a good article.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Britflamesfan

I am not going to cut and paste just spend 2 mins and have a quick look at FN its a good article.

What is FN?

[Britflamesfan]

Originally Posted by getbak

What is FN?

Flamesnation

[cKy]

Originally Posted by getbak

What is FN?

My guess would be Flames Nation..

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Britflamesfan

I am not going to cut and paste just spend 2 mins and have a quick look at FN its a good article.

Doesn't matter what their article says, you said the rest have all had bad seasons. Which isn't true at all. No article is going to convince me, or many others here, otherwise.

[Gary83]

Originally Posted by Britflamesfan

I am not going to cut and paste just spend 2 mins and have a quick look at FN its a good article.

Judging a dman's potential by the amount of points they put up is stupid. Thus making it a stupid article. For instance, Brodie's "rating" would have been around 15. Making Culkin and Wotherspoon better prospects then him. I guess if that's the case we should get both of those guys signed to NHL contracts and up with Calgary right now.

Each prospects will bring something different: Gaudreau with the offensive creativity, but you can't deem Arnold disappointing because he doesn't put up the same amount of points, Arnold's strength will most likely be his strong two way play and that of a 2/3rd tweener.

Pretty sad for the waste of time I spent reading that hot piece of garbage.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Britflamesfan

Flamesnation

That may be the single stupidest "forecasting" model ever witnessed by my eyes in 40+ years of following hockey.

Players projections based solely on PPG?? You have to be kidding me.

LOL...thats hilarious.

[oldschoolcalgary]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Doesn't matter what their article says, you said the rest have all had bad seasons. Which isn't true at all. No article is going to convince me, or many others here, otherwise.

well, this is going to lead back to the glass half full/half empty discourse....

no matter what any expert says, people are going to think our prospects are better than the assessments....unfortunately, in the last 25 years, we've haven't had a lot of success drafting. Granted, different regimes...but the results haven't been good.

[united]

It's a complete embarrassment the Flames entered this season with the crew of centres they did. It's such an important position, as everyone knows, and management has been negligent towards improving it.
It took only a few games (if that) for anyone to see Cervenka wasn't a centreman. I've personally noticed Glencross yelling and pointing for Cervenka - who drifted to the point - the get down low and do his job in his zone. And I'm sure others have noticed other instances similar to this. Shocking stuff.

Just taking a glance around at other teams' centre depth just shows what everyone already knows: the Flames really need to do something here. Granted they've lost Backlund, but how many Flames' centres even play on the third line on some teams in the league? What a shame.

For example, in no order:
Toews - Bolland - Kruger - Shaw
Bergeron - Krejci - Kelly - Peverley
Plekanec - Desharnais - Eller - Galchenyuk
Crosby - Malkin - Sutter - Vitale
Kopitar - Richards - Carter - Stoll
Backes - Berglund - McDonald - Steen
Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Filppula - Emmerton
Thornton - Pavelski - Couture - Handzus

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by oldschoolcalgary

well, this is going to lead back to the glass half full/half empty discourse....

no matter what any expert says, people are going to think our prospects are better than the assessments....unfortunately, in the last 25 years, we've haven't had a lot of success drafting. Granted, different regimes...but the results haven't been good.

That's a different argument, though.

I'm just talking about brit's comment that besides JG the rest of our prospects have had bad years. Really?

And in Wilson't article he mentioned that if Gillies has another great year or improves then he will be a legit prospect. He's not already a legit prospect?

And players like Sieloff who was never drafted to be an offensive force, or a kid like Jankowski who everyone knows is a long-term project have poor rankings because their PPG is low.

It's a pretty silly way to determine if someone has a shot at making the NHL or not.

[opendoor]

Equivalency numbers obviously have their limits, but Wilson is quite correct in saying that players who don't put up a lot of points at lower levels rarely become effective NHLers even in depth roles. Even defensemen like Willie Mitchell and Cory Sarich were near point per game players in the NCAA and CHL respectively.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

What did he do that warranted being sent back down? I thought he played quite well.

As far as I can tell, the first game he was just... there. The second game, he had a couple of nice scoring chances and played quite well.

I'd like to see him back up with the Flames.

Also, Blair Jones resembles a capable NHL centreman as well.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Three years into feasters tenure and the Flames have gone into both drafts he's been a part of with less picks than they had by default.

I don't really have to look much deeper than that.

And they exited the 2012 draft with precisely the number of picks they had by default, with one selection in each of the draft's seven rounds. So your conclusion is not provable at this point in time.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by united

It's a complete embarrassment the Flames entered this season with the crew of centres they did. It's such an important position, as everyone knows, and management has been negligent towards improving it.
It took only a few games (if that) for anyone to see Cervenka wasn't a centreman. I've personally noticed Glencross yelling and pointing for Cervenka - who drifted to the point - the get down low and do his job in his zone. And I'm sure others have noticed other instances similar to this. Shocking stuff.

Just taking a glance around at other teams' centre depth just shows what everyone already knows: the Flames really need to do something here. Granted they've lost Backlund, but how many Flames' centres even play on the third line on some teams in the league? What a shame.

For example, in no order:
Toews - Bolland - Kruger - Shaw
Bergeron - Krejci - Kelly - Peverley
Plekanec - Desharnais - Eller - Galchenyuk
Crosby - Malkin - Sutter - Vitale
Kopitar - Richards - Carter - Stoll
Backes - Berglund - McDonald - Steen
Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Filppula - Emmerton
Thornton - Pavelski - Couture - Handzus

Of those 32 centers, 10 were acquired through trade or free agency.

Thornton, Richards, Carter, Sutter (traded a top center for him), McDonald, Steen, Handzus, Kelly, Peverley, Stoll.

One was acquired this past offseason (Sutter).

You need to draft good centers it is as simple as that. Centers just are not available in the UFA market or to be had easily through a trade.