[Confirmed] Ben Walter joins Örebro of the SEL

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

...And there goes another one of the Heat's impact players.

nhlfreeagents.com ‏@NHLFREEAGENTS 6h
Calgary Flames (F) Ben Walter signed by Örebro of the SEL (Sweden) #NHL #AHL #SEL

Big summer for Feaster coming up. He needs to restock the Heat with some big time AHL impact players who put up points. AHL vets who put up big points are the cornerstone of every single American league club in the league. Hope Feaster knows what he's doing.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Pierre "Monster" McGuire

He needs to restock the Heat with some big time AHL impact players who put up points. AHL vets who put up big points are the cornerstone of every single American league club in the league.

I realize it's different for you because you live there but I'd really rather he not do that so that the young players who conceivably have a potential future in the NHL can get more ice-time, play more games, and have bigger roles.

[Johnny Rotten]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I realize it's different for you because you live there but I'd really rather he not do that so that the young players who conceivably have a potential future in the NHL can get more ice-time, play more games, and have bigger roles.

Know what you're saying; I don't want the Flames prospects sitting too much, but I don't want them having their lunch handed to them every game also.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by Parallex

I realize it's different for you because you live there but I'd really rather he not do that so that the young players who conceivably have a potential future in the NHL can get more ice-time, play more games, and have bigger roles.

That'd be great, but unfortunately that only works in theory, not in practice.

We could go through each AHL season for the last 10 years and look at the bottom few teams and there's a good chance they didn't have any impactful AHL vets on the roster and had a lot of rookies.

I'd love the Heat to be comprised entirely of young prospects and still be successful (like the Grand Rapids Griffins, for example), but the Flames don't have any truly high-end prospects that will be on the roster next year. I suppose you could say Granlund would be the most skilled prospects joining the team next season, but that's not enough.

For a team like the Heat, I think Feaster needs to bring in a couple of Keith Aucoins, Darren Haydars and Martin St-Pierres as scoring cornerstones on the Heat. It's not always the best idea to throw rookies to the wolves in their first pro season.

But this is just one of those big AHL debates haha.

[devo22]

time to bring back David van der Gulik

[GreenLantern]

Right and I respect your opinion on anything Heat related and always appreciate your updates, but is there a correlation between bottom feeding team and poor prospect development?

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

Right and I respect your opinion on anything Heat related and always appreciate your updates, but is there a correlation between bottom feeding team and poor prospect development?

Yeah, that's basically what I was getting at when I said it was different because he's from there... the Heat's success is probably far more important to him then it is to me. I want the Heat to win... but I want something else from them far more.

I mean the concept of "throwing someone to the wolves" is generally regarded as being a bad thing... but on the flip side if you do it you get to know who's a wolf-killer.

I just want the young guys to get many shots at being wolf-killers and I fear that if you stock the farm with AHL vets they won't get the kind of chances that they ought. I don't trust Ward to give them ice-time (and it's not like having Walter, Kolanos, Brust, Street, Taylor etc. got them into the playoffs last year).

[Muta]

We should sign some former guys looking to re-claim their glory.

Pierre Dagenais, Oleg Tverdovsky, Rob Schremp, Niklas Sundstrom, Brendan Morrison (familiar with the organization) and Niklas Havelid.

Should be good for some leadership, too.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Muta

Pierre Dagenais, Oleg Tverdovsky, Rob Schremp, Niklas Sundstrom, Brendan Morrison (familiar with the organization) and Niklas Havelid.

good idea. I honestly believe he could score 60 goals and 130 points for us.

[Stampede2TheCup]

As a Heat fan I wouldn't be worried. It's all just a natural part of players coming and going in the minors. Taylor and Walter looked like they probably weren't NHL material and they went to make money elsewhere. Feaster has gone out and gotten AHL vets in his tenure here and I'm sure he will again even if he leaves more room for prospects this year. There's room for both prospects and AHL vets, it's all about finding the right balance for your organization. Even if they're not the cream of the crop some decent help for the Heat can still be found around training camp and during the season, so that allows a bit of flexibility to add even more veterans later on if needed.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Street and Reinhart might split top two centre next year

[t0rrent98]

Originally Posted by Muta

We should sign some former guys looking to re-claim their glory.

Pierre Dagenais, Oleg Tverdovsky, Rob Schremp, Niklas Sundstrom, Brendan Morrison (familiar with the organization) and Niklas Havelid.

Should be good for some leadership, too.

For some reason, I kinda want Ryan Stone back in the Organization, not because I know him in person but because I think he deserves another chance.

[Roof-Daddy]

We have 8 (ish) of our own forward "prospects" ready for duty with the Heat next season, and a bunch of young RFA's....

Signed -> Reinhart, Hanowski, Granlund, Street, Howse, Ferland, Eddy and Elson
RFA's -> Byron, Aliu, Bancks, Nemisz

Plus there are those "AHL deal" type guys like Olson, Reugsegger and Sylvester

Then, on top of that it sounds like the Heat might be home to some nucklehead dooshbags next year as well.

Should be plenty of bodies for the forward group in Abbotsford next year, but yeah, it will be interesting to see if Feaster brings in any journeyman AHL all-star type guys to bring the high octane offensive numbers.

Do the Heat plan on bringing back Laing, or is it time to move on from the long time veteran?

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Yeah, that's basically what I was getting at when I said it was different because he's from there... the Heat's success is probably far more important to him then it is to me. I want the Heat to win... but I want something else from them far more.

I mean the concept of "throwing someone to the wolves" is generally regarded as being a bad thing... but on the flip side if you do it you get to know who's a wolf-killer.

I just want the young guys to get many shots at being wolf-killers and I fear that if you stock the farm with AHL vets they won't get the kind of chances that they ought. I don't trust Ward to give them ice-time (and it's not like having Walter, Kolanos, Brust, Street, Taylor etc. got them into the playoffs last year).

I love it when the Heat win. It's great for the city and the loyal fans, but nothing gave me more satisfaction these past two seasons than watching all the Heat players come and do okay down the stretch.

I'm not in the sales department and I don't care about my tax money going to a team that I take full advantage of watching. Winning isn't everything for me. Like you, the Flames winning the Cup is the ultimate goal and prospect development is first and foremost.

Again, this is just a classic AHL debate and I think both sides of the argument have good points. It's just so tough to estimate what works the best, but right now I'm leaning towards getting impactful AHL players to help what is expected to be a much much younger Heat team this season.

P.S. I hope Kolanos is next to leave. The guy is insufferable to watch.

[Ozy_Flame]

Perhaps some European vets want to come back and join the team? I'd venture to say a good handful of them want to come back to North America and get the odd call-up for a last shot at the NHL.

Let's continue the Swiss invasion. Someone get Reto Von Arx on the phone!

[Freeway]

Originally Posted by t0rrent98

For some reason, I kinda want Ryan Stone back in the Organization, not because I know him in person but because I think he deserves another chance.

He hung up his skates, didn't he?

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Perhaps some European vets want to come back and join the team? I'd venture to say a good handful of them want to come back to North America and get the odd call-up for a last shot at the NHL.

Those are actually the type of non-prospects that I wouldn't mind Feaster going out and getting for the Heat if he feels compelled to get some tenured pro's. Go out and get a few relatively young guys like Broc Little, Martin Ruzicka, and Bud Holloway who play really well across the pond. Better then burning a Reserve list slot on a guy who good as he may be in the AHL you pretty well know isn't going to be able to contribute much in the NHL.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Freeway

He hung up his skates, didn't he?

According to HockeyDB in 2011-12 he played 25 games for TPS Turku in Finland and then 21 games for Hamburg in Germany. There is nothing showing him playing at all in 2012-13, whether that is due to retirement or injury or both I have no idea.

[Freeway]

Last I heard (via LinkedIn), he had retired and was looking to get into oil and gas.

[devo22]

I remember him playing in Hamburg, he had a very good start but eventually faded pretty quickly and Hamburg wasn't prepared to offer him another deal. He then suffered a shoulder injury late in the season that would sideline him 3-4 months ... haven't heard about him since then. Probably retired due to the injury and/or a lack of good offers.