Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
This gets trotted out every year.
If Ruzicka is ready he's going to play. Having some NHL depth at salaries that can buried with no cap implications is a good thing. You have depth for injuries and you keep the young players honest.
Calgary (luckily) has never been an organization that just gifts players spots based on their prospect ranking.
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100% right.
*cough Feaster Beartschi cough*
Outside of that, yes, absolutely Calgary is a team that handles their prospects professionally. I think the angst is unwarranted given the track history this team has had drafting and developing players well.
There are a lot of current NHL players that got their start through Calgary. They were drafted by Calgary, developed by Calgary, and got their start in Calgary. I would guess if you divide the total number of active players in the NHL, and allocated them to their original teams, Calgary would be in the top third of teams in sheer volume.
Stop thinking of AHL vets as roadblocks - they are assistants, really. How?
1) Kind of crappy when your teammates or line-mates suck, and they can't finish or make plays. It starts to reinforce the notion that players have to do it themselves.
2) How to be a pro. Lots of kids have trouble with this. Having solid AHL vets help them to make better choices - how to eat like a pro, rest like a pro, work out like a pro, practice like a pro. They teach them how to BE a pro.
3) Tough times - prolonged losing streaks, personal scoring droughts, friction with coaches - these AHL vets have been through it. They can help your prospects hold their sticks a bit more loose, feel better about themselves, etc.
I am sure they tick off a lot of other positives. Teams - including Calgary - always prefer their own picks vs outside free agents. Teams just end up giving more rope to 1st and even 2nd round picks than they often deserve.
The way that Calgary has been not only drafting, but also developing - it has been impressive.
Years ago when Calgary first started running their own AHL team, they did seem to play around with different philosophies I think (simply judging by rosters and relative experience). I do remember they had a philosophy at one point that "winning didn't matter - development does" - and this is basically still true, but now they make sure that the AHL team doesn't suck. AHL playoffs are great for development too after all.
