[confirmed] Flames will go after Derek Ryan in FA

[Ozy_Flame]

Ryan played for the U of A for four years. He deserves a chance, hopefully his Edmonton experience didn't ruin his impression of Alberta.

[868904]

There are two things that really pop out at me when I look at the Hurricanes individual players stats.

1) positive giveaway / takeaway differentials for the defensemen - they were all either near even or positive, which is remarkable and really lends to the argument that the Hurricanes were a good possession team.

2) positive and high faceoff win percentages for the centremen - Stall, Ryan, Kruger all over 55% and Rask and Lindholm flirted with 55%. That can't be all just because they acquired good faceoff guys, there is probably a lot coaching of set faceoff plays focusing on puck retrieval as a team off the faceoff. I'm betting a big part of acquiring Lindholm and Ryan is because Peters is big on winning faceoffs and he also wants a couple of guys who can help explain all the faceoff schemes to the other forwards.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Exactly what role would a Derek Ryan provide for our lineup?

(genuine question, not sarcasm)

Versteeg replacement? Bottom 6 C/RW depth?

IMO, we need a top 6 guy, not a bottom 6 guy.

Lindholm I suppose is that guy although he scores less than the outgoing Ferland. It does appear that this team is going to be offensively challenged once again next season.

[Ashasx]

I'm not against signing Derek Ryan, but I hope the goal isn't to become the Calgary Hurricanes as the Hurricanes are not a team I want to emulate.

Similarly, when was the last time bringing in a player because he has familiar with the coach actually worked for this team?

Ideally we'd bring in another top 6 guy and force depth down that way. I feel like Mangiapane should be given an opportunity on the 3rd line over a potentially (likely?) risky acquisition on July 1.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Torch

What Does Ryan bring, compared to Stajan ,Lazar and Hathaway etc?

15 goals in comparison to their combined 10. Also good on faceoffs.

[Flames_F.T.W]

Originally Posted by Torch

What Does Ryan bring, compared to Stajan ,Lazar and Hathaway etc?

He wins a lot of faceoffs and scored more than 4 goals (didn't do research but I'm pretty sure Ryan's 15 goals were significantly more than the offense provided by Stajan, Lazar and Hathaway combined)

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Torch

What Does Ryan bring, compared to Stajan ,Lazar and Hathaway etc?

More points than those 3 players combined.

[Toonage]

nm - covered above

[DJones]

Make's sense.

When injuries happened we'll probably be happy to have him on the 3rd line.

[_Q_]

More low skill, high character guys that are "good in the locker room". We need more. This is how championships are won.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

I'm not against signing Derek Ryan, but I hope the goal isn't to become the Calgary Hurricanes as the Hurricanes are not a team I want to emulate.

Ideally we'd bring in another top 6 guy and force depth down that way. I feel like Mangiapane should be given an opportunity on the 3rd line over a potentially (likely?) risky acquisition on July 1.

I think we're going to see Ryan + another scoring winger added on July 1st so that we end up seeing something like this:

Gaudreau - Monahan - Tkachuk
Bennett - Lindholm - *New Player*
Brouwer - Backlund - Frolik
Jankowski - Ryan - Lazar

Also, I think we're going to see an Engelland signing level melt down when people see the Ryan contract. I predict 3 years at 3-3.5M per.

Hopefully we also see Shore signed and he can cycle in and out of the line-up with Lazar/Brouwer.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I don't know. Treliving just gave Peters two good players from his old team. Are the Hurricanes really that good a team that the Flames should be bringing in their coach and all these players? Ryan doesn't address the scoring issue and to me will simply take ice time away from guys like Jankowski and Bennett.

I don't disagree with your conclusion on Ryan, but I don't think its particularly relevant that the Flames may bring in 3 players from another team that isn't particularly good.

The Flames weren't good last year, but has a pretty good group of very good players.

[Toonage]

Mangiapane will likely make the lineup. Brouwer probably hops in and out of the line up on the 4th line. No way he sees time on the 3rd line (unless its injury related)

Gaudreau-Monahan-Lindholm
Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik
Bennett-Jankowski-TBD
Mangiapane-Ryan-TBD

[Royle9]

35+ point RHS versatile player who can play up and down the lineup but managed to get those points playing primarily 3rd/4th line.

Top 10 faceoff guy in the league

I think he's a perfect 4th line center/3rd maybe depending on what we end up with.

[keenan87]

Gaudreau-Monahan-New Player
Tkachuk-Jankowski-Lindholm
Bennett-Backlund-Foo
Brouwer-Ryan-Frolik

Extra Players: Mangiapane, Lazar, Hathaway, Klimchuk, Shinkaruk, Lomberg, Shore (if they sign him)

Who gets traded or sent to the minors? I think they will need to send down Hathaway, Klimchuk, Shinkaruk. Maybe keep Mangiapane and Lomberg as the two extra players.

PS - If that fourth line is actually what ends up happening, we might have the most expensive fourth line in the league again. Blah!

[Harry Lime]

This year I'm going to go ahead and start prepping myself for the Glass - Ryan - Brouwer fourth line, and second powerplay unit, early.

[mrdonkey]

Buyer beware, Canes fans were thrilled to see him walk because Peters had a terrible habit of overusing him. He played significant time in their top 6 and on the PP.

Seems like an OK 4th line center who I fear will become another Troy Brouwer situation. But this signing is probably the worst kept secret of the entire UFA crop.

[burn_this_city]

Anyone else a little wary of the influx of Bill Peters players already? This guy seems to have Treliving's ear a bit more than I'd prefer.

[The Boy Wonder]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

I think we're going to see Ryan + another scoring winger added on July 1st so that we end up seeing something like this:

Gaudreau - Monahan - Tkachuk
Bennett - Lindholm - *New Player*
Brouwer - Backlund - Frolik
Jankowski - Ryan - Lazar

Also, I think we're going to see an Engelland signing level melt down when people see the Ryan contract. I predict 3 years at 3-3.5M per.

Hopefully we also see Shore signed and he can cycle in and out of the line-up with Lazar/Brouwer.

I really like that line-up. Bringing in either Foo, Mangiapanne or someone from UFA would be great to have a very solid top 9 because we know there will be injuries and having that extra cover would be a good idea.

I also think you could easily move backlund up to that second line and shift lindholm to RW and then Janko or Ryan to 3C.

That looks like an improved forward group, just wish we could get rid of that brouwer guy.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by mrdonkey

Buyer beware, Canes fans were thrilled to see him walk because Peters had a terrible habit of overusing him. He played significant time in their top 6 and on the PP.

Seems like an OK 4th line center who I fear will become another Troy Brouwer situation. But this signing is probably the worst kept secret of the entire UFA crop.

There’s a big difference between Brouwer and Ryan in terms of underlying numbers, so that gives me hope.

Ryan, I believe, will be what we hoped Brouwer was going to be (but really, Brouwer is exactly what he was before we signed him - he was bad before, he’s bad now).