Toppolzer

With his moves this offseason, I think it's fair to say that things like the Bollig and Engelland acquisitions last year were more Burke than Treliving. He was still getting his feet wet and probably wanted to do what his new boss told him.

Yes, because being worried that the team leading scorer and captain is going to be down for any length of time is an indication of that.

Exactly. If Kanzig can become a better skater (like MacInnis did) and continue with his physical game. He could be a real good 4/5 D-man

On the topic of Kanzig's skating. Can you guys think of anyother of defensemen the Flames drafted was a notoriously bad skater when drafted? I do. Al Macinnis was a absolutely horrid skater, he was drafted mainly because of his wicked slap shot.

Well, yeah. But to Brodie (better +/-) or Gio (a force at both ends.) Why not have them share the award. True, but there's always time for them to draft/trade/develop their D-core. Sieloff and Wotherspoon are looking to be alright and Kanzig is a beefy 3rd pair sorta guy.

I'm not saying he'll be better, I'm just saying the stats are comparable and slightly tilted in TJs favor. Also, this is a little off topic but anyone else notice parallels between our rebuild and Chi towns? We have a young defenseman putting up elite numbers (TJ Brodie/Duncan Keith), a small skilled winger that some have compared to Patrick Kane (Gaudreau), and a young, strong, 2-way centre that has been compared to Toews (Monahan) that we can build around? It's uncanny. One thing we have that they don't is what will hopefully be a bonafide 1-2 centre with Bennett and Monahan. The Hawks have had some trouble with finding that #2 centre.

To help you project Brodie, here's an interesting stat. He has better stats than Duncan Keith did at the same age on a similarly placed team.