conundrumed

Ladies and Gentleman.....YOUR.... CNRL FLAMES

Yup. Here ends what always looked like a power struggle. There were instances where BT would say something publicly only to watch Sutter pour gasoline on it. I'm actually happy for BT. Things calmed from appearing toxic with JG and MT leaving to even more toxic now.

That's the one for me also. Does Luke Hughes roll right in with NJ?

But will they care?lol

Nice. I was actually wondering if Honzek's comparable might be Ruzicka based solely on scouting reports. I think Wood's skating is mainly due to his frame. It will improve as he fills out. Everything else is pretty darn solid. Moore is speed. He's the 2nd line C to Smith so doesn't spend a lot of time with Leonard/Perrault. I lean to putting Moore and Brindley as very similar as players. Can absolute fly and play at high pace and be responsible in all 3 zones. I get Joey Willis with Saginaw vs Sting rn. Not very noticeable after 2 games. One of their top guys is Michael Misa...he's 16!! Cameron Allen last round. He'll be a 2nd rder. He's a good puck-moving dman and he's solid defensively.

The u18 tourney is April 20-30. Finding rosters is like pulling teeth. It's too bad the CHL playoffs are in full swing, but we've definitely got some gamers. The US team is the USNTDP U18 team. But I seriously wonder if they'll add u17 ridiculously good Cole Eiserman. Canada has Celebrini on the roster. If the US adds Eiserman that's next year's 2 guys fighting it out for 1 & 2 in the draft. TSN is likely carrying the tourney. Watch Celebrini. Berkly Catton may be a top 5 next year also. US should be the favourite. They play together all year. I think Ryan Leonard would be a solid pick at 16th,amongst others.

It would be nice if we could think in the current box.lol The Rangers totally ruined Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko, Fox, Miller. Nashville is ruining Evangelista and Tomasino. Van has completely ruined Petterson and Hughes. Buffalo has ruined Cozens, Power, Quinn and Peterka. Don't even get me started on NJ and Detroit. The list goes on and on. Every team is ruining all of their prospects. The Flames have called this on all of these dummies. You can't call prospects up too early because you'll ruin all of them. Now get those extensions in place on everyone 27+ because our prospects NEED at least 2-5yrs of seasoning, best case scenario. Look at a guy like Phillips. He comes up here thinking he can be fast and creative. Punk. Here's 8 minutes Hash Rate, you think your good? Get the hell back down there.

Eastern Conference Florida (8) vs Boston (1) NY Islanders (7) vs Carolina (2) NY Rangers (5) vs NJ Devils (3) Tampa Bay (6) vs Toronto (4) Western Conference Winnipeg (8) vs Las Vegas (1) Seattle (7) vs Colorado (2) LA Kings (5) vs Edmonton (3) Minnesota (6) vs Dallas (4) By Conference seeding of course... I'll hope for a team that has never won one minus Vegas. So Minny, Seattle, Winnipeg in that order because of fans. Sorry Winnipeg, your fans are as obnoxious as Vancouver's. My brain says Boston. How is anyone overcoming that Defence? I know, I know, "nobody if the Flames aren't in". There should be some epic hockey. Hopefully we get to patio weather by Rd 2. Go Sting.lol

A lot was written about how awesome they are last year. Notsomuch this year. Seems like some mechanics issues, not getting square, not playing at the top of the crease. Then there's the issue of dmen that aren't very good harassing guys in front of the net doesn't help. They have more than enough evidence on tape I would think, but goals keep coming the same way or no one is tieing up sticks on rebounds. Kinda why I was hoping we'd trade for Maatta because it feels like how to defend your net without taking penalties is a lost art. Or take the penalty vs a certain goal. But Detroit extended him prior to tdl so he became off the table. I think puck-moving dmen have become more value than actual defencemen so this is where it ends up maybe. Fans tend to cheer the points and overlook D atrocity. Case in point, Erik Karlsson and his ungodly number of even strength goals against. Doesn't seem to matter. He could win the Norris by being the anti-christ of defencemen. Not even a remote possibility he should win it.

Prolly the best place to put this: https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/team-canada/men/under-18/2022-23/world-championship/stats/team-rosters?teamid=233

I agree with that. One thing I like about FLA is that they're married to no one. If there's one team in this league that understands trade dynamics, it's them. They've vollied good and bad trades yet always come out of it okay. As a fan, I'd love that. We tend to hold onto everyone outside of bottom players to the bitter end. Yet when we have traded a big name (Hamilton), it was a great return. Tkachuk was a great return but forced. I really wish we would ramp it up a bit. Not just for the sake of making trades, but it would sure keep the roster honest as opposed to settled in. *edit One more year of Lindholm at a bargain would elevate the return over Horvat imo. That's a good situation for a team to get a test run before putting an extension up. I'm not so fond of moving him. I'd rather move Backlund, Mangiapane, Toffoli, Tanev, Vladar for various reasons. Players I wouldn't move Lindholm, Dube, Andersson, Hanifin. Again for various reasons. In a nutshell, get younger and faster, remove the dman you can't seem to win without (Tanev) and the guys that exhibit too much frustration (the rest). Keep the guys trying their best but separate the 2 dmen as a pairing. This season we had an, "on paper" roster that was indeed a paper roster. A lot of teams are going to be better next year, we can't stay the same.

I currently have him near our 2nd rd pick and I think he'll be close to that. This doesn't apply to him, but I wish the NHL would throw out the Sept 15th age cutoff. Imagine if Bedard was an October birthday. He would HAVE to take the Matthews route because of the NHL. I check all birthdays. If it's past Sept 15 then I'll revert to last year's stats when I believe the player should have been drafted. For the CHL, I treat Sept 16th onward as the player being in their D+1 year because ONLY the NHL puts that barrier up, no other league holds you back. Not the player's fault, but for me, it's a more honest assessment. I'm more likely to kick you down a bit if you're an 04 birthday if last year's stats are much lower than this year. Because this is your 18yo season, not your 17yo. You're a year ahead of everyone if I throw out the NHL standard that no one else has used up until this point. In this sense, Pelletier and Zary ARE the same age. NHL rules don't change that.

I'm a no. I think the "leadership, lockerroom" cheerleader stuff has become a thing of the past. We can't hold onto those values from past eras. Lucic is a prime example. If you are a young NHL player, the team provides everything from psychologist to dietician. You've been through the stresses at every level and now you're here. What can a vet that drags the pace of play down offer at this point, good stories? Hire them to tell good stories then. How to prepare can come from 27yo as easily as 35yo. To maybe highlight one thing about Toews, he would know the tendencies of every C in the league, but so would Lindholm. Kadri should, but you wouldn't know it.

I say 10% Markstrom because I rank the zero intensity at about half the problem. Then another 25% goes to what is potentially the worst passing team in the league. Just watch the PP. Then there are no finishers when every fan loves Toffoli because he's the only one with a scorers shot. So goaltending falls down the list to the many other issues, especially funneling 40 shots/gm with zero creativity. They get so surprised that they score that they forget that there's still a game going on. They get so discouraged giving up a goal because it might be hard to get it back. So those are pretty huge problems. And I haven't gotten to zero traffic in front of the opposing goalie, like ever... Add in a coach that spent all year playing the part of make-believe chemist and I really don't care much about bad goals. A whole team that needs an extra 3 seconds with every puck on their stick is doomed to fail in most leagues, especially this one. The crux of the reason that you need every save. It isn't because every goalie owns us, it's because we're terrible in the O-zone. Did we even score a tic-tac-toe goal this year? Even the worst teams can do that.

Give it up. I said he sucked in one game that I watched. You alluded to, in another thread, Cossa sucks because he's in the ECHL. Like many NHL goalies have done. I have zero idea what point you're trying to prove by re-hashing that thread. Nobody is saying anything that's out of line. Hope you didn't spend too much time finding something pointless. You seriously need to forget about hindsight and throwing around every prospect under the sun based on stats, sight unseen. Notice I don't talk up Riley Heidt? It's only because I've never seen him. Here's a link, go to watch. Full games from the 5 Nations Cup or USHL game highlights for USNTDP: https://www.usahockeyntdp.com/teamusa There are plenty of ways to watch players that give you interest.

With our 0.8% chance of picking 6th? Or our 0.2% chance of picking 7th? Because there is 0% chance that he'll be available at our 99% chance of picking 16th. Zero. None. Nada. 99%. He's a top 10. Are you a Wings fan?lol Barlow's a huge talent wallowing on a pretty bad team. The ONLY thing in Owen Sound worth the price of admission. Scorey McScoreface. He interviews exceptionally well too.

Should I be worried about 97pts but -3?

Markstrom has a full No Move Clause. The key being No Move. He has zero reason to waive it. I wouldn't if I were him.

Vladar is easily tradeable with that contract. Markstrom has a NMC so it's off the table. A buyout would be ultra dumb. He's maybe 10% of the problem. Fix all of the other garbage and that number will shrink. Bounce back seasons are pretty normal.

Almost zero. As good as zero actually. Now when the Leafs play the Oilers in the SCF, this season will hit my worst nightmare. Go Sting, Go Wranglers. Wings have 2 1sts, 2 2nds and an abomination of young talent moving into the system next year, so that's fun. Flames need to find a way to make more than 15-20% of their games a watchable product.

Nope. Playoff teams now use elimination and pts vs other eliminated teams.

We're drafting 16th. So a <1% chance of moving. We're drafting 16th. Nice job Flames.

Foooorrrrre!

This game was not even close to being worth dropping likely 2 spots in the draft. But of course...