I know many people have said that Gazdic will most likely not even get an NHL game and play all year or the majority in the AHL. I agree that he will spend the majority of time in the AHL but I think he surprises with how many games he will start.
Listening to a few podcasts their has been some speculation that he may play opening night and I'm one of those people that agrees. With the loss of Engelland and Edmonton having Maroon, Lucic, Kassian I can not only see Gazdic playing opening night but also Hathaway.
Edmonton didn't have a great penalty kill, I believe it was 17th in the league last year. So if those idiots want to run abound, we just need to punch them in the face with the pp.
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I'm so sick and tired of terrible players being in the lineup for opening night losses. Grossmann, Ivanans, Letourneau-Leblond (IIRC)... just play the best forwards you have instead of trying to mix it up. The Flames have about 20 better forwards than Gazdic in their organization... there's no reason for him to play at all unless everyone gets injured.
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However, I actually could see this happening. Maybe he's this year's Grossmann? (kidding. I hope)
I think it was on Haynes' podcast (edit, thank you AC) where he brought up how the Flames play a string of larger teams that first week and would (or might) want to match size.
Gross if true although it's kind of silly at this current time to pencil anyone (outside of Hamonic or Smith) that's not a returning starter from last year in the opening lineup.