cross16

A random thought I had last night on Phillips, is I wonder if the Flames will keep him in the A for the whole year and try to hide him from expansion. He's eligible to be taken and if they call him up and he does well does he become an option at that point? He's trending towards looking like a top 6 forward and could be a sneaky value add from Seattle if they like him. If I was Seattle and picking between Bennett, Phillips and Gio, Phillips would look mighty attractive.

His career arc woudl suggest these 2 things are not true. to each their own but I'm not for putting unskilled players in my top 6. It's not worth getting mad about it's just something I would never do. I do remember Ferly and Ferland is still one of the most talented guys at his size i've seen in a while. Ritchie doesn't come close to the skill level Ferland had.

I wouldn’t like that. He’s a good veteran presence down there but he gets burned a lot imo. He’s scare me at this level as I don’t find him very stout in his own zone. phillips is the guy who should get the call. Put Phillips with Lucic and Backlund and move Mang with Gaudreau and Mony. balances out really nicely imo.

For the TDL I’m not sure they flames can realistically acquire a RS player they would be better than Phillips right now. They 100% should call him up before any trades are made.

Emilio Petterson starting to play really well. Goal tonight has him up to 10th in AHL rookie scoring. starting to stand out more every game for me too. Great stuff from a 6th round pick.

Yup exactly. I didn't mean to imply this was going to be a big boost to the cap it's just a real win for the NHL to get such a guaranteed revenue stream. Players have been in escrow for a while so there is a lot of catching up to do but that was also negotiated in the latest CBA. They already agreed to essentially keep the cap flat the next couple of seasons so this would not have boosted the cap in the short term, but it may keep it from going down any further or provide a boost sooner than we previously thought. Especially given the 7 year term.

He had a no move clause. As I recall he only gave a list of teams to the Flames at the trade deadline after being told they had no interest in re signing him.

Be interested to see the $ on this one. Could be really good news for the cap. Coverage wise that seems like a big win for the NHL. Edit: Apparently it's $400 million which is double the rumored $200 mill NBC pays. And they have 1 more US TV deal to do. HUGE revenue win for the NHL.

They did. Flipped him to Washington for a 2nd and a 3rd. 2nd was used to net Hamilton and the 3rd was used to move up and get Kylington. That quite the return for what was a 3rd line player.

Bennett's first comments. Totally get where he is coming from. Be interesting to see what Sutter sees his role as. Center vs wing, score vs checker, pk? Few options

Every coach in the NHL is going to make decisions that make you scratch your head so I expect no different with Sutter. Playing Ritchie with Mony/Johnny absolutely fits in this category. It makes no sense.

Darryl Sutter isn't here for a rebuild so whether the Flames miss this year or not I don't think changes anything. This is a organization that has committed itself to try and do whatever they can do win every year and the fact that they tied Sutter's contract to Treliving's is telling to me. I don't think they will go full re build at all (as in trade everyone and get draft picks) but if the players don't pick it up under Sutter I think deals that perhaps they were reluctant to do last year they will look to pull the trigger on to shake things up but i think those deals will likely be hockey deals and not future based deals. But I fully expect the focus is going to be on winning and playoffs. No doubt in mind.

I am hoping that Sutter will have the guts to do something other coaches appear not able to do, be willing to split up Johnny and Mony and put Monahan in a different role. I doubt you see it this year but as I said all off season I think this is past due. I know Sutter will have no problem doing it if he feels it will make them better but I am really hoping he sees it this way.

One of those is not like the other..... I think Leivo has played well but been very snake bitten personally.

This comment make sense. Other than the breakouts I didn't see a lot of issues with the actual x and os. The problem was playing passive/too slow which led to execution issues. I'm not a fan of how the Flames plays in the o zone but at the same time it's pretty typical stuff so I wasn't really expecting a change. I'm interested to see if anything changes with the blueline and how they defend it.

Interesting comments... video evidence of the skate...

The only thing I read into that is that Brett Ritchie is going to be a regular here now. I'm sure that was likely obvious anyway but this would be a strong signal for me. Sucks for Leivo

Pelletier is up to 8th in Pts/game in the Q. 12th overall in points but 8th in points/game with about half of the players above him are over agers. However, even cooler than that is who is down in 11th place. Flames 5th rounder in the last draft, Ryan Francis, is 11th in the Q for pts/game.

Special teams another big story in Stockton this year. Number 1 PP in the entire league again. Operating at a nice 42.9% and they are 8% better than the 2nd place team. 9th best PK rate at 84.9% Pretty good coaching staff down there IMO.

Last night was a good example of how I suspect the Heat are going to have to play much of the year. Because their D and goaltending aren't great they'll have to keep scoring their way out of it, but give them credit they did. a lot of d breakdowns though and Manitoba was allowed to walk right in on several occasions. I don't think Zag was great but also give him credit he did make several saves to keep them in it and give them a chance. Back to back pointless game for Ruzicka, which is not that big a deal but I think it does show he has more work to do before he is in the mix for a call up. He's good at finishing plays but his play away from the puck is still a work in progress. Phillips continues to impress. Great work on the goal that should have won the game for Stockton. For a small guy he finds his way to the tough areas. I think Pospisil needs to get a little quicker, but it wouldn't surprise me if he sees an NHL game this season. He brings a lot of elements the NHL team is short on. Big body, great in front of the net/slot area, tips, always willing to engage physically.

5 game win streak for the Heat and 4th best win% in the AHL right now. very good start.

I’ve come around on Pospisil. He had the look of a caveman when they drafted him but you can see why they liked him. im not sure he’s close yet but he’s making good strides.

Really impressive win. Outside of a 10 min stretch on the 3rd, which I think was by design as the seemed to be playing safe, that game wasn’t close. the line of Zary-Ruzicka-Phillips is proving to be pretty unstoppable at this level. They almost always have the puck in the offensive zone

Phillips is unreal. He’s dominating this level.

Ruzicka is getting the press but I’m still more impressed with Phillips. He’s the engine of this team. I get the fit is tough but he should be in the nhl imo.