Where would the Flames D now rank in the NHL?

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by hockey.modern

Hamilton is not a poor man's Bouwmeester.

Agreed. He makes more money than Bouwmeester.

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Giordano-Brodie
Jokipakka-Hamilton
Kulak-Engelland

Should rank around third behind

Vlasic-Braun
Martin-Burns
Schlemko-Dillon

Josi-Subban
Ekholm-Ellis
Carle-Weber

though that puts them right in the mix with:

Keith-Hjalmarsson
Kempny-Seabrook
Forsling-Campbell

Muzzin-Doughty
McNabb-Martinez
Forbort-Greene

and IMO better than:

Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo
Edmundson-Parayko
Bortuzzo-Shattenkirk

Hedman-Stralman
Sustr-Garrison
Coburn-Koekkoek

ask Elliott if he thinks that the Flames defense is better than the defense he had in front of him in St. L. ... Their #4 guy got picked ahead of the Flames #3 guy in the world cup.

[ignite09]

Man, reading some of the current threads on this board make me almost miss the over dramatic stupidity in the Gaudreau threads from the off season. I honestly didn't think that was possible.

[Saqe]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

^^^ I would also like to nominate this group for one of the best in the league:

Ekbald-Yandle
Matheson-Demers
Petrovic-Pysyk

I'd say top 10 easily, not sure if I would consider that top 5 although they have looked great early on. Matheson looks incredible.

[SeanCharles]

The Flames top 3 of Gio, Brodie and Hamilton is easily in the top 5-10 in the league. Gio is arguably one of the best defencemen in the league, Brodie is on his way to usurping him as the best defencemen on the team and Hamilton is already a 40pt top 4 defenceman, which at his age is impressive - ppl keep forgetting this point.

Brodie and Hamilton are both young and still improving so the sky is the limit for these two.

Jokipakka and Engelland are good 5-6 options so we're really just missing a #4 guy.

I don't think I'm alone is saying I'm getting tired of all the negativity around certain Flames topics. Calm down, we still have an enviable defense core, Hamilton is not a bust, our goaltending and offence will get better, the team will play better when the new system is instilled throughout the lineup, and the coaching staff does not need to be dismissed this early into his tenure.

Keep things in perspective please, most of our top forwards missed training camp, its a new coach and system, we have a new goaltending tandem that are settling in too.

I told my brother, who was flipping out on Friday night, "don't judge the team based upon 2-3 game segments. Judge them after at least 10 games and go from there."

3 games out of 82 can, in theory, make or break a season but please keep in mind there are 79 left to be played and we have looked terrible. All that means is things will only get better because they are not as bad as the results would indicate.

Too many negative threads around here. I'm happy to be a Flames fan right now because this franchise is on the rise. Can we stop and appreciate that instead of nitpicking the 2-3 games to start the year?

We knew this would take time given all the factors. Just relax and lets regroup in a few weeks and see how they responded to this terrible start.

[genetic_phreek]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Bottom half I would say. There's a reason Brodie and Gio don't get the call for the Olympics or World Cup and that's because they aren't solid enough defensively. They are good offensive defensemen but Team Canada looks for more all around defensemen which is why both will likely never play on the big stage for Team Canada. Hamilton probably is the most gifted but I feel people tend to forget he's only 23 years old and defensemen hit their peaks later than forwards so I'm not overly concerned about him as once a good coach gets a hold of him he will be fine. The rest of the defensemen are all depth talent at best.

I'd argue they are both better all around than Muzzin, Hamhuis or Marc Edward Vlasic.

[Plett25]

Why don't we wait for 10-15 games to see how they are playing under the new coach's system?

[Robo]

Another thread to try and secretly bash Dougie Hamilton? Seriously saying he's not a top 4 now what is wrong with some of these posters?

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by genetic_phreek

I'd argue they are both better all around than Muzzin, Hamhuis or Marc Edward Vlasic.

Not MEV, but agreed on the other two.

[btimbit]

Our top 3 is, well, top 3. But the bottom 3? Yeesh. Thank God for Jokipakka.

[Kickazzflames]

Flames D? Top 30 in the NHL easily.

[mcjmcj]

Hamilton is a top 4 d-man when he is on his game, but he does have many of the same attributes as Bouwmeester- good skater, average shot, but doesn't hit. As soon as he makes Team Canada, I find it hard to say he is on par with Bouwmeester, who if you like hime or not, is a better skater and more consistent. That being said Hamilton is 22-23, he has plenty of time to mature, as d-men don't usually hit their prime until 26-28.

[timbit]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

ask Elliott if he thinks that the Flames defense is better than the defense he had in front of him in St. L. ... Their #4 guy got picked ahead of the Flames #3 guy in the world cup.

Did you really think that the GM for team NA ( the current Oiler GM) was actually going to pick Hamilton after being scorned by the Bruins in his attempt to trade for him and Dougie ending up on the provincial rivals roster?

Oh ricardodw!

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Eric

I get most of your posts are on the pessimistic side but our D group is not bottom half in the league.

Please explain what is pessimistic about my initial post. I didn't bash anyone as being garbage or anything;

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Bottom half I would say. There's a reason Brodie and Gio don't get the call for the Olympics or World Cup and that's because they aren't solid enough defensively. They are good offensive defensemen but Team Canada looks for more all around defensemen which is why both will likely never play on the big stage for Team Canada. Hamilton probably is the most gifted but I feel people tend to forget he's only 23 years old and defensemen hit their peaks later than forwards so I'm not overly concerned about him as once a good coach gets a hold of him he will be fine. The rest of the defensemen are all depth talent at best.

As you can see I'm complimentary of the top 3 but don't feel they are rounded enough to be a top 15 defense core. That's not pessimistic, that's just looking at the results seeing all sports are results based and the results haven't been what I would expect of a top half defense regardless of the names on the back of the jerseys. Just because I'm not willing to overrate Flames players doesn't mean I'm pessimistic.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Please explain what is pessimistic about my initial post. I didn't bash anyone as being garbage or anything;



As you can see I'm complimentary of the top 3 but don't feel they are rounded enough to be a top 15 defense core. That's not pessimistic, that's just looking at the results seeing all sports are results based and the results haven't been what I would expect of a top half defense regardless of the names on the back of the jerseys. Just because I'm not willing to overrate Flames players doesn't mean I'm pessimistic.

We are only 1 season removed from having a +25 goal differential after 82 games. The goaltending really let the team down last year, and to put the entire blame on the defence group isn't fair in my opinion.

The flames top 4 defensemen put up 163 points last year, this is second only to Nashville with 179. If they are the second best offensive group in the league, they would have to be horrendous defensively to be considered below average in the NHL.

I think you would agree the results from first few games with a new coach are too small of a sample size to take anything from. After 15-20 games you should see a lot different vibe around CP as i think the kinks will be mostly ironed out.

[Jason14h]

they would have to be horrendous defensively to be considered below average in the NHL.

Some would argue they are terrible defensively.

Top 10 for me, but I was expected top 5 two years ago...

[McG]

I'm glad that I didn't have any 82 question tests where I got a score based upon the first 3 questions and I never got to answer the other 79. Were we training for the first 3 or the entire test? I didn't like our results but seriously, what an overreaction.

Isn't the question here can we outscore the opposition with solid D and good offence? I'd say that we don't know yet; we know what we think but we don't really know.

Expectations...what a burden!