Brandon Hickey signing watch. UPD: BU announces Hickey will captain team for 2017/18

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

He's overrated anyways.

ok

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

Agreed. If the Flames sign Stone in the offseason, chances are Hickey will not be a Flame next summer. Here's the minimum depth chart Hickey has to compare to when choosing other paths:

Giodano - Hamilton
Brodie - Stone
Kylington - Andersson
Fox

And chances are the Flames will congested the line-up with Bartowski, Engelland or whomever else.

So if Hickey only has to wait a few months to earn himself an NHL spot or top AHL minutes, I can't see him passing up on that

Why do you have 19-year-old Adam Fox who has just completed his rookie NCAA season ahead of Brendan Hickey?

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by codynw

I'd be less worried if the Flames weren't awful at giving young defencemen a legit shot at the NHL. Why would he sign with a team that will probably keep him in the AHL until he's waiver eligible and then trade him for future considerations?

Which Flames defensemen have not received a "legit shot"?

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Why do you have 19-year-old Adam Fox who has just completed his rookie NCAA season ahead of Brendan Hickey?

It's​ competition for ice time. I wouldn't have Fox ahead of him necessarily, but if the Flames sign Fox next year, Hickey would need to consider all the guys who could steal opportunity from him.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Which Flames defensemen have not received a "legit shot"?

If you look around the league plenty of teams are leaving their 6th and/or 7th spots open for rookie defensemen. Flames don't do that. They always have veteran players penciled in for those spots and a rookie has to be not as good but better in training camp or he's not getting a chance. It was a convenient excuse for Erixon but the team really hasn't changed the way it's operated this way since then. It's just an organizational belief that experience is more important than anything else on the blue line.

[Strange Brew]

No team has more open spots on the back end next year than the Flames. I don't watch college hockey - maybe he's not close to ready?

As for Flames not developing defencemen - Fact is, they signed an AHLer to a contract near end of season, and he has been a fixture in the lineup since. And that's after making an acquisition of a dman during the year.

You can blame drafting, development or decisions made at the draft. Whatever makes you feel better but I'm relatively confident in saying that unless a team can churn out NHL defencemen with some degree of regularity it's going to be hard to be a consistent contender.

[codynw]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Which Flames defensemen have not received a "legit shot"?

The easier question would be, other than Brodie, who has been given a real chance? The answer is nobody in the last five years or so. But at least Bartkowski/Diaz/Butler/Wideman/O'Brien/whatever other waiver/PTO garbage got their ice time!

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by codynw

ok

I wasn't impressed with him at the World Juniors. He looked pretty average even compared to Wotherspoon at his World Juniors.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

No team has more open spots on the back end next year than the Flames. I don't watch college hockey - maybe he's not close to ready?

As for Flames not developing defencemen - Fact is, they signed an AHLer to a contract near end of season, and he has been a fixture in the lineup since. And that's after making an acquisition of a dman during the year.

You can blame drafting, development or decisions made at the draft. Whatever makes you feel better but I'm relatively confident in saying that unless a team can churn out NHL defencemen with some degree of regularity it's going to be hard to be a consistent contender.

Really even if the Flames drafted defensemen as well as the Ducks many of those young players wouldn't get the same opportunity in Calgary they get in Anaheim.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Which Flames defensemen have not received a "legit shot"?

Andersson?

The Flames went into the year scratching Kulak for many games for Jokipakka, and then scratched Andersson for many games

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

If you look around the league plenty of teams are leaving their 6th and/or 7th spots open for rookie defensemen. Flames don't do that. They always have veteran players penciled in for those spots and a rookie has to be not as good but better in training camp or he's not getting a chance. It was a convenient excuse for Erixon but the team really hasn't changed the way it's operated this way since then. It's just an organizational belief that experience is more important than anything else on the blue line.

Well, I am far from convinced that this is an "organisational belief," and think it is much more readily attributed to the fact that the Flames have not drafted a lot of defensemen in the top-forty for quite a while. You can't argue that the lack of drafted defensemen in the bottom six has cost the team anything. The day a Flames drafted defenseman is lost by the organisation and finds success with another team is the day that I would agree with you, but that hasn't happened.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

Andersson?

The Flames went into the year scratching Kulak for many games for Jokipakka, and then scratched Andersson for many games

No. He is still with the organisation and the team seems to be pretty high on him. TJ Brodie had played all of three NHL games at the same age as Andersson who has played in one.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by codynw

The easier question would be, other than Brodie, who has been given a real chance? The answer is nobody in the last five years or so. But at least Bartkowski/Diaz/Butler/Wideman/O'Brien/whatever other waiver/PTO garbage got their ice time!

Show me a defenseman who was drafted by the Flames and is now finding success with another team after having been passed over and lost by this organisation. Again, one of the reasons for the low number of defensemen to have made an impact from their draft pool has a lot to do with where they are picking them at the draft.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

No. He is still with the organisation and the team seems to be pretty high on him. TJ Brodie had played all of 3 NHL games at the same age as Andersson.

Not as high on him as Bartowski, otherwise Andersson would've played some more games

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Not really. It's not uncommon that when a player takes Hickey's route he signs with a different team than the one that drafted him. We will have to see what the Flames depth on defense looks in a year but you can't fault him for looking for the best opportunity to play in the NHL and don't kid yourself that agents have a lot to say about where they sign as well. If the agent thinks there are teams that will give him a better shot he will be in the player's ear.

Actually, it is uncommon, so you're wrong.

The vast majority of players drafted out of US colleges play for the team that drafted them.

There are exceptions, but they are uncommon.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

Not as high on him as Bartowski, otherwise Andersson would've played some more games

This is ludicrous. Bartkowski is a bona fide NHL defenseman with over 200 NHL games played that the Flames acquired for depth in the thick of a playoff run. If you honestly believe that he is in the long term plans of the team ahead of 20-year-old Rasmus Andersson then I don't know what to tell you.

[Flames Draft Watcher]

MarkGio using suspect logic again.

Leopold stayed all 4 years and we still signed him. But chicken littles gonna run around about the sky falling

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Actually, it is uncommon, so you're wrong.

The vast majority of players drafted out of US colleges play for the team that drafted them.

There are exceptions, but they are uncommon.

I am not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I would be interested in seeing the differences in numbers between players signed by the team who drafted them after four years of college as opposed to those who made it to UFA.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Show me a defenseman who was drafted by the Flames and is now finding success with another team after having been passed over and lost by this organisation. Again, one of the reasons for the low number of defensemen to have made an impact from their draft pool has a lot to do with where they are picking them at the draft.

That's a bad measurement. To measure a teams ability to draft and develop NHL defenseman should look at percentage of successes per draft or per periods of time (ie 5 years). By the time the Flames already failed at both drafting and development, a different team would have to be bloody exceptional in those areas to fix a reclamation project.

You're trying to compare repairing old products to manufacturing new ones.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Can someone let me know if I should panic? I feel like now would be a good time to start. I'm already nervous about the Flames game. May as well double down on the panic levels.