RFA Poll: Should the Flames resign TJ Galiardi

[Karl]

He's quite a good skater but there's really nothing else he's shown he can do half-decently other than that.

Whoever says he's Blake Comeau version 2.0 is spot on.

I'd prefer to move on from this sub-mediocre player. He was mostly dreadful last season and the rest of his career hasn't been much of any good either.

[Stay Golden]

No too many young guys have passed him by says it all.

[mile]

Nope - Seems like a good guy and he's been effective before coming to Calgary, but he is the most replaceable forward we have.

Way too inconsistent - Liked him at the start of last season, had small spurts of good play but was producing nothing most of the time in between.

[Calgary '89]

Not sure which young player can play C, RW or LW, kill penalties and forecheck as fast or as hard as Galiardi.

Don't confuse him with a top 6 player just cause he played on Thornton's wing in SJ, he's a very useful bottom 6 do-it-all kinda player and the Flames definitely need that for the next few years.

If Galiardi can average 14 mins a night and score 10-15 points next season while playing against top lines then he's worth keeping around.

[Daradon]

No. I really wanted it to work out with him, and for the first little while it looked like it was, but I went with option three, too many young guys are proving they deserve the time over him.

If all it was about was overpaying a 4th line guy, I'd be ok with that, cause I don't see us being a cap team next year anyway. But I think the minutes could be more wisely spent on someone else.

EDIT: Though maybe it would be good to have an extra veteran in case some of the young guys take a step back or simply aren't ready. As has become gospel in the current NHL age, you can never ruin a guy by giving him too much time to develop, but you can ruin him by bringing him up too early or too often.

I guess I'm option three, but I'm ok either way. The Flames staff probably know the situation better than I. But for me the answer to the question definitely revolves around the progress of the young guys, and is a lot less about T.J.

Sorry T.J.

[badradio]

I would rather have Byron in the lineup... I'm not sold on Knight or Reinhart either... but Galiardi is a dime a dozen... depth is a fun thing to have... and strange!

[Tinordi]

He had a gift wrapped opportunity here and didn't take it. Sorry but that's all he should get.

[CsInMyBlood]

No point in keeping him around, we have more than enough bodies that can do anything that Gallardi can do, if not more. I don't want to say he was useless, but he was...useless.

His spot should be filled by one of our young guys. If they can't do more than Gallardi did last year then we at least know they aren't long for this team either.

Figure out what we have with our prospects, now is the right time to do it and TJ Gallardi should not be the kind of player stopping them from getting some NHL experience. He had a great chance with this team last year and he dropped the ball. Certainly explains why the Sharks let him come to Calgary for so little.

Time to move on.

[Enoch Root]

He had a bad season. That impacted the Flames not one lick.

It would cost us absolutely nothing to give him a chance at redemption. If he has a better year, he would be movable at the deadline.

Zero downside for the Flames here.

[TheDebaser]

Galiardi had good possession numbers at least.

[kyuss275]

There should be a poll to see who CP thinks should be our press box players. It better not be youngsters. One reason I voted for Westgarth back was for pressbox. I could see why Galiardi should not be back but he is kind of a good guy to have in and out of pressbox. Can flames get a better pressbox player?

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

He had a bad season. That impacted the Flames not one lick.

It would cost us absolutely nothing to give him a chance at redemption. If he has a better year, he would be movable at the deadline.

Zero downside for the Flames here.

There's 2 downsides:

1) He costs a contract space that could later to be used to acquire a player or sign a college UFA
2) If he doesn't improve the Flames may have to pay his 1 way salary in the AHL and he could be taking ice time away from a developing kid in Adirondack.

We're trying to improve. Galiardi is a guy that we should be able to improve on since he was fairly useless last season. Much rather we gave a shot to somebody else, either in the organization or outside of it. He had a whole season of chances on a variety of lines and failed to impress. Why does he deserve more of a chance than kids like Reinhart, Granlund, Knight, etc who actually have impressed?

Let's move on IMO.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher

There's 2 downsides:

1) He costs a contract space that could later to be used to acquire a player or sign a college UFA
2) If he doesn't improve the Flames may have to pay his 1 way salary in the AHL and he could be taking ice time away from a developing kid in Adirondack.

We're trying to improve. Galiardi is a guy that we should be able to improve on since he was fairly useless last season. Much rather we gave a shot to somebody else, either in the organization or outside of it. He had a whole season of chances on a variety of lines and failed to impress. Why does he deserve more of a chance than kids like Reinhart, Granlund, Knight, etc who actually have impressed?

Let's move on IMO.

1) Very little chance that we're up near 49 contracts this year

2) who ever said he deserves more of a chance than Reinhart or Granlund?

If they are better than him, they'll get their chance.

Better to have someone that they have to outplay in order to make it than simply open the spot up.

Plus, if he plays well, he becomes a tradable asset.

[Read Only]

If the only requirement of signing a guy is zero downside then shouldn't we just sign everyone?

Galiardi didn't have a down year he had a similar season to the last full season he played. In SJ he was given a chance to play with Thornton (who has made a career of making guys look much better than they are) and looked terrible at that. They gave him up for very little and replaced him with Mike Brown who struggled to play with the Oilers and Leafs.

Galiardi struggled to stay in the line-up of the 4th worst team in the NHL and there isn't any reason to think this upcoming year will be better.

I hope the Flames start looking for guys that make the team better and not guys that don't hurt or maybe if they can be something they aren't we can trade them at the deadline.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

1) Very little chance that we're up near 49 contracts this year

2) who ever said he deserves more of a chance than Reinhart or Granlund?

If they are better than him, they'll get their chance.

Better to have someone that they have to outplay in order to make it than simply open the spot up.

Plus, if he plays well, he becomes a tradable asset.

So this is all about hoping he becomes a tradeable asset? Seems a bad reason to re-sign him IMO.

I'm fine with rookies having to outplay guys to make the roster. The guy they outplay doesn't have to be Galiardi. We can sign some depth UFA's in the summer or deal mid round draft picks for some just like we did last year with Galiardi and Russell. Getting rid of Galiardi doesn't mean we have to hand rookies spots. There's lots of time to acquire players via UFA or trade this summer to shore up depth.

Bottom line for me is that I don't see any reason to believe he'll rebound. He's been given lots of chances. We're trying to upgrade the team and we can do it with players from outside the organization or within or a combination of the two. Based on his last season I don't see any reason to retain him.

Glencross-Monahan-Hudler
Baertschi/Gaudreau/Granlund-Backlund-Jones
Byron-Stajan-Colborne
Westgarth-Bouma-McGrattan

With re-signing a guy like Westgarth we could already have four lines while only handing one spot to a rookie. So add in a depth UFA guy, maybe a mid rounder for another depth guy and the rookies will still have to outplay guys to make the team and not have their roles handed to them. Galiardi doesn't need to be in that equation at all. His play doesn't merit another contract on a team looking to improve on the type of mediocrity he brought.

[Enoch Root]

man, a couple injuries and that lineup will be frightening

we need a few more bodies that can play in the NHL

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

man, a couple injuries and that lineup will be frightening

we need a few more bodies that can play in the NHL

Sure. As I said you sign one UFA, trade a pick for another player and then we likely have 2 rookies make the team and the depth could be okay if those rookies are impact rookies. Obviously we're not competing for the cup next year. I'd expect at least one substantial roster changing trade between now and next season as well that might reshape things. With our farm team as deep as it's ever been we actually should be in good shape come injuries.

Prospects who should be close to making the NHL include: Baertschi, Gaudreau, Granlund, Reinhart, Knight, Arnold, Agostino, Hanowski, Ferland, Wotherspoon. I don't recall us ever having that many including some high profile guys who could be 1st/2nd liners.

Other potential injury callups include: Poirier, Van Brabant, Billins, Cundari

Tons of good injury replacement and tons of competition in camp for limited roles. What we lack is a bit of 2nd line talent obviously but we have to hope one of our prospects come in and have calder type seasons.

[Enoch Root]

Over-ripening

[ForeverFlameFan]

Imo, I think you pick between either Byron or Galiardi... And I think we all know the answer to that one.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

man, a couple injuries and that lineup will be frightening

we need a few more bodies that can play in the NHL

Yes, but Galiardi is a worse player than any of those guys FDW has listed in his lineup except for McGrattan & Westgarth.

Galiardi has really not shown he should be one of those bodies that should be back here. There are some young players here and other UFA guys who can do anything at least as well as what Galiardi does best. To his credit, he hustles & tries hard but he's not very good and most likely is what he is at this point, which is a sub-mediocre hockey player.