conundrumed

Ahh the dog days of summer...get the RFA's signed and get ready to grasp into what's left in FA, scare us with PTO's on tweeners, rinse and repeat. Can't wait until the Pelletier, Zary, Kuznetsov, Mackey, Ruzicka crowd can graduate to meaningful NHLers and stop pulling our hair out waiting for substantial improvements via our own prospects. It's been Mangia, Dube, Andersson and then cliff for too long. Almost Valimaki. Almost nothing in bottom 6, always rent-a-tweener or slow and nothing to get excited about.

That's pretty crafty negotiating to get $300,000 in the A. No escrow on that also. Close to the same take home pay either way. This is without a doubt his show me year. Accepting the qualifier looks like more on the surface, but this is a better deal for him.

9.25??? WOW. If they went 5 yrs, would it be $12mil per?? Holy crap, Holland is on the loose destroying another team.

Is he better than Stone? Yes. He'd be pretty cheap and likely worth taking a flyer on. He's had a hard time finding consistency post-injury so has bounced around. But Stone isn't exactly good...he's been a BT project since day 1 it seems. I'd prefer Vatanen personally. At least breathing life into him could have upside, as opposed to Stone.

Zadorov's agent got out ahead of that and said they elected arb due to the trade being fresh and BT was too busy atm to be able to talk contract with them. Electing arbitration doesn't necessarily mean that it gets that far.

I find the rhetoric around Gaudreau wanting out to be really silly. More silly made up stories for Canadian fans that thrive on hockey talking points, made up or otherwise. There is zero fact in it. Same as Tkachuk. Media being attention whores, not sure why there isn't just a huge collective eyeroll exasperated sigh... Rather, the fans decide they need to be traded, rather than call BS. BS talking points...

But if we want to jump on our ability to draft goalies, I'm all for that.

Damn I was hoping you meant Brett.

But you alluded to the new hires interfering with Wolf's development. Is it Flames development, or is it a struggle to find who might get far enough to be one of the world's top 75 goalies? Only Nashville has truly been a goalie factory in this league. Most other teams have to buy a goalie. This isn't isolated to, "the Flames don't know how to". An 18yo goalie has already developed, the only hope is to see the attributes and hope that they continue to improve. But as they move up leagues, the game in front of them improves. A few can handle it, but most can't. You can only scout a checklist, angles, puck-tracking, mobility, athleticism, rebound control and attitude. Not really fair to blame the system when most goalies either improve little or can't adjust to a faster, harder game. That's more on the individual. Why whine about Brossoit? It's not like he's great, he's an average backup.

That's not how it works. Prospect goalies don't get in each other's way. They all get the same treatment. If a 24yr old looks like he could transition soon, you know you have time with a 20yr old. If the 20yr old looks like he'll transition faster, he will get the most playing time. But they all get the same coaching. No one gets in anyone's way. Rittich never got in anyone's way, he was just the best option. He didn't stop Gillies from getting better, Gillies just never got any better.

I was never a Parsons fan and had the eye test enough watching the Knights. Whoever spotted Rittich should be our main goalie scout. Even if Rittich fell off the earth, at least you could see the solid attributes. Never saw much in Parsons. Just that he was cocky because of the all-star team in front of him.

Glad it's Detroit, but that would have been a great one by BT. Stevie's pick with TBay, you almost come to expect these kind of shenanigans from him. I liked Stephens dating back to watching the Marlboros.

Ouch, Detroit trades a 22 6th rd pick to TB for Mitchell Stephens. RHC, coulda been our 4th line C. Cheap and a good prospect with some NHL time. Stevie Y working his magic.

At best. I've stopped counting him as a goalie prospect. More as a waste of a 2nd rd pick. Selecting goalies from offence-juggernaut teams should be off the table in the future.lol Werner was a 5th rder, same draft. Respectable Sv% in 46 AHL appearances vs Parsons' 26 appearances.

I don't think anyone really takes away from another's development. Gillies will never be an NHL goalie, so Rittich deserved the time to ready himself for the next step. If anything, they were really slow giving Rittich much starting time in the A, so he earned his time. Unsure if Vladar is the backup solution, but I've been rampaging for more depth, so like we've added some.

It never ceases to amaze me how fans approach their like/dislike of goalies. It's not like players at all. With players, they look at their qualities. Forgive errors. With goalies, they look at their worst goals against, no forgiveness. I'll always maintain that Rittich has great mechanics and will always find a place in the NHL because goalie coaches can see that his base skills are very good. I'd have had no problem bringing him back, but he'll do well in Nashville.

Welcome to the Dallas of the North!!

I'm good with how it has panned out so far. I view the Flames a little differently than others I think. Had we have rolled out the dough for a top RW and LD, that's where I would have been annoyed. The whole, "Brett Ritchie's cheap and fine for the 4th line" mentality is clearly not mine. No he isn't. The biggest problem I have with the Flames is the bottom 6 and lack of G prospects and prospects in general. 2 big names aren't making the base of the problem go away, which imo is not icing a full roster of NHL-quality players. Prospects end up making this team because the roster is so bad. Or worse, camp invites of guys who almost made the NHL. Having a great penthouse view in this league means nothing when your kitchen and living room are a disaster. I'm all for cleaning up the messes first, then move on to improving the view. So I like the Pitlick, Coleman and Lewis additions, because all 3 bring work ethic. Something this team sorely lacks. I'm fine with Zad the Impaler being added on D. Good. Destroy some people. Get ready to see teams always throw the puck to his side because they fear getting hit by him. Long time since we've seen that. 2 young G prospects...gotta walk before you can run. And be patient, because there's a lot more ailing this team than making giant trades and signings imho. The compete level was in the toilet, that HAS to be addressed.

too funny td

I'd go with no.

Some of these D deals are total headscratchers for me...

I like that call bosn. I've always liked Nilsson and Ullmark has been respectable on a woeful team.

More importantly, why take him in the 1st round? Clearly he'd have been available later.

He's doing fine. Don't forget who the coach is. This team had no bite in it's game, I'm sure Sutter was losing his mind.

Yikes. Total reclamation project. He's not good...