travel_dude

Kinda sets the bar for Coleman doesn't it. I think they are somewhat similar players, but Coleman is a bit dirtier.

Some unsubstanciated stuff today. Garrioch saying we are pusjing for Coleman (TBL can sign him probably). Gaudreau part of deal for Eichel (not much to support that). Vegas signed Martinez, so I don't see thm pushing for Eichel without losing more salary.

He aged overnight? Just turned 28 and now he's 30.

It's strangely quiet in Flames-land. Our needs are as strong as any team's. Does that point to work being done on just trades? There are a few FA's I would be looking at and not just trading assets to build a team.

Unfortunately, it seems that BT takes the word of the coach as gospel. Hathaway never should have gotten to FA, but he is one of the few that actually got the coach's trust. Byron waived because we wanted an extra goalie and some useless forward. I don't get why BP turfed Kulak. He played with Stone when Stone was really bad. Lomberg really didn't get much of a chance here, so I'm not sure that they played hardball with him. The only thing he got from FLA was the one way deal. Here is where I do agree that BT is being a tool. Two way deals. Kylington being given a two way deal. Come on. I get not giving one to Lomberg for 11 NHL games (even if I don't agree with being so cheap), but Kylington? Why so cheap? It's such a small amount of cash to the club but so big a difference to a player. $70k. Yet there is no concern about paying an over the hill invite to eat popcorn.

DOn't get me wrong, Couturier is a good player. Without any extention, it's more of a bad situation than an unsigned Gaudreau. Not a fan of Atkinson.

What's the prize? Coutourier a pending UFA at the end of the year? Atkinson? A first?

According to Brooks, he is signing with the Rags.

Well, actually I was talking about Russians and other FA signings. Since you bring up Kylington, I will counter the argument that he hasn't grabbed a spot. He wasn't given a spt even after earning a longer look. Forbort and Gus both got the games. Neither of them was anything special. Who was it before them? I get that if you have a world class D, you don't have room for Kylington's mistakes. We weren't even that close to a playoff spot this past season, and only were short a couple of wins because MTL sucked the last few weeks. And yet we chose to use either Nesterov or Stone. Both pending UFA's. I've got no issue with the AHL as a development league, so using spots there for fringe players isn't sensible. You want them to help younger players, not be the team.

He was a winger in Tampa right? A LHS LW. I don't see the fit with us. For the money he will command, he has to be a top 6 RW or C. As much as Hyman is going to be overpaid, at least he fits the need here.

Oiler faithful trying to convince themselves that Neal's buyout is a good thing. $2.6m dead cap (combined with Lucic retained salary) for 2 years $1.9m dead cap for an additional 2 years. Getting rid of the NMC that would have resulted in them having to expose Kassian or Archibald. Out goes Neal at age 33, in comes Hyman for ages 29 - 36. 4 of those years Hyman could be a 20 goal guy.

I'm starting to lean towards McCabe as a FA signing. Zero assets going out. Would you run Valimaki with Stone, or try to upgrade Stone?

I'm curious where who we should be looking at for a backup. Brossoit and Mzarek have about the best SA% of available UFA's. Brossoit probably a bit cheape, assuming he makes it to FA. Jones and Holtby being bought out, but they were both sub par last year. Raanta used to be good, but I'm a little concerned about injury history.

What I am saying is you have the same holes. You replace a LW with a C and a C with a LW. Tkachuk has been effective on RW, while I have my doubts that Gaudreau would be as effective. What does that 2nd line look like? You have Landeskog-Eichel-Gaudreau. Mangiapane-Backlund-Lindholm? No 3rd line C. Or perhaps you have Mangiapane-Lindholm-Dube. Is that a step up? I am one of the people that would make the trade of Tkachuk for Eichel. Losing Monahan and gaining a winger in FA, not as much. I have to believe that you are saying trade Tkachuk, Monahan and Valiamaki for Eichel. If so, that is way more than I am willing to give up. If it's not, then what are you getting for Monahan to improve the team.

Friedman is saying that COL is trying to get him done at 7 x $7m or at worst 8 x $7m. That only makes sense to us if we are trading Tkachuk. I don't see how we can do both this and also trade for Eichel without creating more holes. I just don't see how trading Monahan, Tkachuk and Valimaki makes us better. We still have a hole on RW. Gaudreau isn't the right fit there.

Well, using Froese as the leader and getting top minutes doesn't make sense to me. A leader? Sure. Not in minutes. We had a mess of D in the AHL over the last few years. Depth not good enough to be full time NHL. We reward a guy like Stone, but refuse to offer a "prospect" any games. Never know if they have grown if you don't play them. If you had to choose between developing a prospect and a career tweener in the AHL, which should you spend minutes on? We waived Kylington and paid him squat to not play any minutes anywhere. We paid Petrovic basically the same and used him about half the games.

Our 2 picks in the 2nd and 3rd are fine. Would I have preferred other being picked? Sure. Doesn't make them wrong. I wish we had had a second second. There were others that went nearby that I would have liked to take a swing at. So many dropped from the 1st. Had we had 2, there was a better chance of picking one of them. With only 1 pick, Stankoven, Chibrikov, and Raty would be considered big risks. Tuolmaala could have been pick 1 and Stromgren pick 2.

It seems that more calls are coming about Tkachuk. Makes sense because he fits a need for 31 teams. Unless it's a home run deal, I am inclined not to bother trading either.

Pretty subjective rating.

I will let FN speak for me. Fair assessment, though they may be high on some. https://flamesnation.ca/2021/07/27/flashpoint-analyzing-the-flames-2021-draft-picks/

Tired of typing his name. How about Covid? Or Corona? I have heard some suggestion that in a normal draft year (normal schedules and scouting) he would have gone top 5. I'm just happy we didn't go for a safer pick. Some suggestions about Wallstedt are that he's not suited for E/W hockey. Don't know if I buy that. Detroit got the big Galute. In 5 years they might be wishing they went Wally. Had we had a 2nd pick, I might have been higher on selecting a goalie, or perhaps a decent D-man. The two goalies are long term project for the teams that selected them.

Unless there is a total breakdown in negotiations, I don't have a big concern. Today is only important if we are looking for a trade. And doing that only makes sense if it makes us a better team now and for the future. My bigger concern is that we sit on our hands and don't replace the loss on D and lack of depth and RW.

The Neal saga is just about done. On waivers for buyout. So is Jones and Holtby. Boy, did VAN back the wrong horse.

Not really. The problem is that we want a player that can impact the team in NA, but we send them to Stockton to adjust. And they rot there. Yelesin played a steady 4 games on the Flames and he was never a consideration. I sometimes wonder if we are using Stockton as a way of teaching winning, so win at all costs. What good is it to give a 30 year old Froese or Petrovic or 29 year old Buddy ice there? Get them prepped for NHL call up? Don't get me wrong, I like some of the things we have done there. Development of some of our young players. But we fail to get some of them ready enough to be trusted in the NHL.

I think we will be really happy with Potato in 2-3 years. Just hope we still have the C's at that point and a really good setup guy. Remember how deadly Monahan can be and Lindholm on RW?