[News] Flames release training camp schedule and roster

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

That might imply (at least to start):
Gaudreau/Monahan/Ferland
Tkachuk/Backlund/Frolik
and maybe
Lazar or Foo/Bennett/Versteeg

Also might imply

Brouwer-jankowski-xxxxxx


I could see the falames trade stajan to penguins with salary retained if Bennett, Lazar, jankowski all impress. Crazy depth at centre

Monahan
Backlund
Bennett
Jankowski
Lazar
Hamilton

Lots of NHL depth...

[AC]

A couple interviews from today:

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by AC

A couple interviews from today:

Wow. Mike Smith is BIG. Is he bigger than Hiller?

[hockey.modern]

Versteeg - Bennett - Foo
Lazar/Stajan - Jankowski - Brouwer

That would be a fantastic bottom 6.

[AC]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Wow. Mike Smith is BIG. Is he bigger than Hiller?

Smith is 6'4, 215.
Hiller is 6'2, 191.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by getbak

He went down instantly. Gio went over and talked to him and then called the trainer over. He wasn't putting any weight on his leg as he was helped off the ice. It all looked pretty innocent, so I wouldn't be surprised if he re-tweaked whatever injury he had last season.

So often non-contact injuries are worse than big collisions.

Not seeing it and just reading how it went down, my guess would be an ACL.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Wow. Mike Smith is BIG. Is he bigger than Hiller?

At one point, they were doing a drill where Hunter Smith was screening him, and I was surprised by how close in size they were.

[Gaskal]

Smith is probably that goalie you can just hold LT/L1 down in EASHL and stay in butterfly the whole time, just move side to side. What a tower.

[442scotty]

I feel bad for Prybl. He has no luck at all....

[thymebalm]

Originally Posted by hockey.modern

Versteeg - Bennett - Foo
Lazar/Stajan - Jankowski - Brouwer

That would be a fantastic bottom 6.

Two of those players are in a 'fantastic' bottom 6. I believe you mean 'best case scenario'. Sign Jagr already! Our depth is so weak after the top 6 its scary.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Two of those players are in a 'fantastic' bottom 6. I believe you mean 'best case scenario'. Sign Jagr already! Our depth is so weak after the top 6 its scary.

That is ridiculous.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by GullFoss

Also might imply

Brouwer-jankowski-xxxxxx


I could see the falames trade stajan to penguins with salary retained if Bennett, Lazar, jankowski all impress. Crazy depth at centre

Monahan
Backlund
Bennett
Brouwer
Lazar
Hamilton

Lots of NHL depth...

Brouwer? Can he play C?

[Caged Great]

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Two of those players are in a 'fantastic' bottom 6. I believe you mean 'best case scenario'. Sign Jagr already! Our depth is so weak after the top 6 its scary.

The Flames are perhaps the deepest team in the NHL as is. Getting Jagr would be the cherry on top, but it isn't vital or necessary.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Brouwer? Can he play C?

Brouwer played centre for a time in Chicago, if I recall.

[VilleN]

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Two of those players are in a 'fantastic' bottom 6. I believe you mean 'best case scenario'. Sign Jagr already! Our depth is so weak after the top 6 its scary.

Have you looked at other 'bottom six' Fwds on other teams? Our depth is far from weak... I don't know what calibre of player you are expecting at those positions.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Braden]

I thought Lazar looked really good today, fast energetic, one of the few guys getting physical. Went 1on1 with Shinkaruk for a few drills and Lazar just dominated him in every aspect.. Gazdic was also a slight surprise expected him to be slower then he was but he completed the drills like an NHLer would. Glass had his fair share of puck fumbles, looked slow at times, had trouble staying onside for drills. Gazdic>Glass is my current opinion. I thought all the 1on1 matchups were cool to see, Gaudreau vs Monahan, Brodie vs Hamonic, Andersson vs Valimaki, Philps vs Brouwer (poor kid lol) lots more no doubt but those were the battles that stuck with me. Rittich really impressed aswell, he seems to have an attitude to him, stared people down after every shot it seemed like, let them know what he didn't like. He wasn't afraid to hack n slash people to close to him, and played the puck more then anyone else in the camp. My bet would be he's the first call up.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Wes Gilbertson @WesGilbertson
According to Gulutzan, #Flames RW Troy Brouwer is seven or eight pounds lighter than last season. "He is in fantastic condition."

Originally Posted by Bingo

That is a huge relief.

Nobody is expecting Troy Brouwer to go "all world" this season, but a serious commitment to getting back on track is a huge uptick for the season. I know Stajan felt he lost a step two years ago and got in the best shape of his life for last season. Made a huge difference.

Originally Posted by getbak

I thought Brouwer and Jankowski looked pretty good together.

I sure hope the lost weight can help Brouwer to being a competent third line NHLer. He wasn't very good in 2015-16 outside of a short playoff hot streak, and last year was simply a nightmare. Jankowski will need to play center and with wingers who aren't blatant liabilities. If Ryan Van Asten really worked with Troy over the summer to maximize his physical condition we could at least put some gauze on the bleeding.

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Two of those players are in a 'fantastic' bottom 6. I believe you mean 'best case scenario'. Sign Jagr already! Our depth is so weak after the top 6 its scary.

Sam Bennett is a fantastic bottom six option. Had 21 ES points last year in what was clearly rock bottom and should realistically pot anywhere between 25 and 35 ES points this year while being an excellent PKer and ideally a PP staple.

Versteeg is also a no-brainer. While he was productive... last year was actually the worst possession season of his career which was most likely due to playing with Troy Brouwer and two young centers in Monahan and Bennett. There's reason to think he should be better next season that he was last season.

Jankowski is a fantastic bottom six option. I'm record as saying I see him as a 6'4" Mikael Backlund. Maybe his game at 23 isn't as polished as Backlund's was at 27, but I don't think Backlund at the same age is a poor comparable at all. And Backlund WAS a good player back then at 23 and I think Jankowski is every bit as good and probably has more tools at his disposal to be better.

So that's three players in your bottom six that I consider fantastic, and two of them play center and are natural play drivers - which is a significant factor in weighing the whole bottom six.

Next is presumably Bennett/Versteeg's final winger. Whether that's Foo, Poirier, Klimchuk, Mangiapane, Shinkaruk, you've left a spot for a skilled and touted prospect. If none of these guys take that spot we probably WILL sign Jagr, but it's clear the expectation is on one of them to succeed in this role. It's a no-lose scenario between this player and Jaromir Jagr for the 10th forward. It might be a question mark who that is right now, but it's not much of a question mark that whoever it is will deserve that spot by the end of camp.

Then you have Lazar. Toss last year out the window due to mono. Assuming he hasn't gotten any better than the player he was in his first two years you have a good winger who can skate, pot 20 points without PP time had some success as a penalty killer at the young age of 20. 20 points out of an 11th foward is NOT poor production. The Rangers last year were one of the deepest teams in the NHL at the bottom of their lineup and their 11th-leading scorer at forward (Pirri) had 18 points while not offering anything of note in terms of two-way play or puck distribution. I am not even sold on Lazar being worth a 2nd round pick but I'm sure as heck sold that he's better NHL forward than Brandon Pirri.

Finally you have Troy Brouwer. I am a bit critical of Troy Brouwer... but if he is your 12th forward and can show even the slightest amount of life, he is a better 12th forward than most teams in the NHL. Full stop. Even if he is last year's Troy Brouwer, he's one of the few 12th forwards who can play power play unit 1 and contribute in that capacity. Even if 4.5 million dollars is tough to swallow for a 12th forward, that doesn't mean he isn't a fantastic 12th forward. And if he's able to be better than he was last year? Well boom, even I'll admit that besides last year he should be more of a ~8th-9th forward on a contender depth chart (which is still too far down for his pay but I digress).

And there's Matt Stajan, who I contend is an average 3rd line calibre center in the NHL still and has no business being pushed out of the lineup but it just happened to happen in an eight year span from 2007 and 2014 we drafted four very good centers with our first round picks plus trade for another (Lazar) who are starting to peak before his contract is up.

We're also ignoring some pretty rock-solid depth players in Andrew Mangiapane, Freddie Hamilton, Marek Hrivik, Garnet Hathaway, Morgan Klimchuk, Emile Poirier (assuming he clears waivers though), Ryan Lomberg, Hunter Shinkaruk (likewise), even Dillon Dube on an emergency callup. We are set up well for injury scenarios.

The only thing that could drag our bottom six down would be the Tanner Glass / Luke Gadzic types that teams love anchoring themselves down with. And some comments above suggest Gadzic might surprise, though I'm a skeptic.

Our depth is neither weak nor scary. That's not being a homer. Depth was a strength of this team last year when our top line wasn't performing, and the only guys gone from that group are Alex Chiasson and Lance Bouma.

[sureLoss]

Aaron Vickers @AAVickers
Rough opening day of camp for the #Flames. Daniel Pribyl, Joel Lowry and Zach Fischer all listed as injured.

[thymebalm]

Lazar/Stajan/Brouwer/Jankowski - 19 goals last season
Bennett/Versteeg/Foo - 28 goals last season

We have stajan and lazar (regular scratches), Jankowski and Foo (unproven rookies) and Bennett/Versteeg/Brouwer - decent depth. Forecasting two rookies and two scratches into the bottom six and calling it the best in the league seems absurd to me.

It's also less than 50 goals combined for those 7 guys last year. The best teams score ~250 goals for a season.. 200 goals is a lot for the top 6 to make up. An impossible amount. It's not great scoring depth. The only way it's good is if all of these things happen:

A) Jankowski seemlessly transitions to the NHL and puts up numbers (1 GP)
B) Foo seemlessly transitions from college to the NHL and scores goals (0 GP)
C) Lazar at least matches the output from his best season (37 GP last season - 4pts)
D) Brouwer and Stajan increase their point totals in their 30s (rare feat)
E) Bennett rebounds from a regression last season and
F) Versteeg is still awesome.

I'm willing to bet on F and E - but anything else is hopes and dreams.

Since I'm so out to lunch here - how many goals are you guys projecting from Foo? Lazar? Stajan? Jankowski? Where does the depth scoring come from?

[GullFoss]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

Brouwer? Can he play C?

Oops meant jankowski