travel_dude

Comparing two players such as Pelletier and Ruzicka, size points to Ruzicka. Work ethic and heart go to Pelletier. Players like Marchant are small, but have the heart to win. I get concerned when I see players like Phillips passed over in favor of Robinson. Sure, we can't be 100% players under 6', but big should not be the biggest factor. BPA should be best one available, not biggest player available.

This is starting to look like a decent draft. Zary, Kuz (LHS D), Poirier (LHS D) and Francis. While Francis is short, he seems to be thick.

There's little point in getting excited about winning two games against tired teams. The Oilers game was a big win, but they were tired and upset. The Leafs played last night and were outplayed. We shall be tired against the Habs. It's not like we have fared well in the 2nd game of a B2B. And if Domingue starts, we are sunk

And our relative position in the standings.

Finnish league versus NHL. But anyway, Val was off his skates for basically a year. This guy is in the SEL. Good finish to the season

I've tried to forget the drafts and trade prior to 2014. 2013 was two 1sts that were complete misses; perhaps Lkimchuk was just a player that could never trasition from AHL to NHL. 2012 draft was a mess, with the exception of a Russian D-man that never came over. The JBow and Igy trade were the worst possible messes and the ROR almost waiver situaltion would have completely derailed the rebuild. The NHL may not have enforced it, but we will never know. I'll give credit where due, the one good pick was Gaudreau. Kucherov was supposedly on our list, but we opt for Wotherspoon directly before he was picked? The three years of drafting and we have 1 player plus Andersson, who was a traded for Baertschi pick (done by BT).

With Bennett gone, so ends the tragic story of the 2014 NHL Draft for Calgary. Only Bennett ever played a single NHL game out of 6 picks. Such is life. Last draft before BT took over.

Sutter needs to take some responsibility here. Playing him with Nesterov? That's a reach. Valimaki is/was already a good player. He played more this year than most of his teammates, plying his trade in Europe. Playing big minutes. More likely to be injured in the AHL with goon players left off team's rosters, like that fool in Laval. Every player on this team has nights where they make the wrong reads, have inadequate skating, etc. To my view, this is tough love that Sutter uses to motivate players. Gaudreau has a decent game 499 up to the point of getting creamed against the board, and Sutter calls his effort dopey. Game 500 was the opposite of that in Sutter's view. It works once in awhile, but can have a negative effect. I noticed that Valimaki is back for two games in a row after the Nesterov replacement for two Flames losses.

I think they qualify Kylington and let the other D walk. Nothing really there that stood out. For forwards, they qualify and sign Dube and Gawdin. I'm not sure what they feel about Simon, as his play was mixed and only under Ward. Qualifying him allow him to be exposed. For UFA's, I suspect they try to re-sign Leivo and Nordstrom before the expansion draft, while Ryan will be after. That gives Ryan the option of destinations, but also gives Seattle the option to blow their pick on a UFA. Based on today's roster, I think your list is exactly the direction they go in. You don't bring in Tanev and have him be your best D-man only to expose him.

There's not a lot to hate about the player. Way too early to define his ceiling, so I won't even try. His description fills something we don't really have at a young age; a power forward. Not physical as much as a bull with the puck. His shot is described at very good. Whether he is a LW or RW doesn't really matter to me. If he can play either, that is something we tend not to have. And if he can only play one wing, then we have some decisions coming. Lucic is not going to be here when this guy is NHL bound. Backlund may have moved on as well. So it comes down to what role he plays here. The trade itself is a good one. Not a rebuild one at all. Not even a re-tooling one. It's a trade of an asset that had a contract that priced itself out of a reasonable one for the player we had. And given his protection status, we likely lose him as his play improves this season. If it was a 2nd in 2022 alone, it would have been an okay trade given his current value. The fact that FLA is in the top of the league this season means a 2021 pick could be as bad as 32 (I think Seattle gets a pick in round 1). 2022 may see FLA drop back in the standings, so it may work out better for us. We will see soon enough the direction the team goes in. The trade probably puts us in a better footing regardless of that direction.

I think both Dube and Valimaki are being evaluated right now to see if they need further development or just monitoring. I'm against sitting the players if the coach feels they need to work on play, as there is no benefit to doing nothing to improve. I actually thought that playing with Monahan and Mangiapane was a decent use of Dube. Valimaki playing with Stone isn't the worse thing for him; it allows him to focus on puck moving. Neither IMHO is going to learn that much in the AHL. Kylington should because he is doing nothing to improve. Almost like they are hiding him from Seattle.

I think it's fair to call out the GM for mistakes made; coaching, trading picks away, some FA signings. Did he try to upgrade the team (Brodie for Kadri, somebody for PLD)? Not sure what he will do to fix the team. Is Gaudreau or Monahan the problem, or did he fail to get a C or RW to improve the top 6? Playoff fails are on the GM and coach almost as much as the players. But we are also talking about a limited sample. Last year, some poor decisions made to go with one goalie until it was too late, and questionable calls prior. The year before slipping into the playoffs and getting destroyed by a team that fought their way in. I'm sure a lot of fans will be as fed up if we trade Monahan, Gaudreau or Tkachuk this summer, as if we don't trade them. 3 players that could make you a good team if they were surround by other good players. Or they are the problem with the team in which case you re-tool. I frankly don't know which it is. Lucic playing 15 minutes a night, and you get 12 good ones from him. Backlund as a shutdown C, but he's used the 3rd most of the available C's. Mangiapane, one of the most electric player, used mostly on the 3rd line. Ritchie, Simon, etc used in the top 6. Gio-Ras kept together for closer to 40 games when it was apparent that the pair was struggling. Seems like coaching is still an issue, but I think it's just that you can't re-make the team in the middle of a losing season. The time to change the style is in the summer.

I'm going to take a sit back and watch approach with Bennett and our return on the deal. As good as he was in the playoffs last year, in his contract year last time he was unable to improve his showing. He got a deal based on what he showed; not enough growth to warrant a long term deal, not big enough numbers to get a big raise. This year, he regressed, another contract year. A lot of this points to improper usage by coaches to the point where he never really had steady linemates other than Janko and maybe Granlund. Under Sutter, perhaps he was turning the corner, but it was really too late to figure it out. He was not a better C than the top 3 C's we had deployed, and it was a waste using him as #3 RW or #4C. Maybe he gets the chance in FLA to turn his game around. Good opportunity to show he is a playoff performer. Give them a reason to re-sign and protect him.

I am curious as to your opinion on him. You normally have one.

Oh dear a RW, what are we going to do with him? A LHS of course, but most of the NHL is. On one hand, I hope he comes over soon. On the other hand, he may be better off developing over there. Tough call, there is no right way.

For sures, FLO is tough enough without Sam dropping the gloves

Would like to see both, but I think we take what we can get. Phillips needs to prove he can play the big game to Sutter. He would have less concern about Ruzicka's size. Philp is another one that should get a look.

I do agree with this statement. Use him with a guy like Mangiapane or Dube, not Ritchie.

He is a C, though. Since he's not eligible for the expansion draft, a safer prospect to bring up than Phillips. I guess the other thing is he's being rewarded for good play this year. Phillips has tailed off recently. Last 6 games, Ruzicka 3g 2a, Phillips 1a.

I'm not too worried about him doing well or not. If he does, then that kinda proves he was never going to here anyway. And he has a career he worked for. If he doesn't, then we get a prospect and a 2nd chance at drafting a player next year.

Gone is "18 year old Sam Bennett TM". Enjoy the sun and the South Beach ladies. Avoid the COVID. Good Luck.

A story about the player: https://thewincolumn.ca/2021/04/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-calgary-flames-newest-signing-walker-duehr/

Would I prefer that it was Holloway? Sure. But a UFA that probably is somewhere in the Hathaway level isn't anything to sneer at. But of the players we just talked about, Merkey has 3 NHL goals and Mete 4. Not that I would complain about Merkley being claimed, but Mete is 5'9", which for a defense where we struggle to contain big forwards, is a problem. Vatanen is another story. You should never overlook a player, but does it make sense to claim him now? Better player by far than Stone. Does it do anything for us at this point to try him out? Maybe.

The AHL schedule finishes before the NHL one by nearly two weeks. If not traded and we have no intention on playing him, I would like to see Kylington sent to the AHL. Same is true of guys like Robinson, Petrovic. I suppose we have to keep a minimum players on the taxi squad, but what use is Robinson here? Petrovic provides a veteran presence on the Heat.

Yeah okay. Played on a team that went to the Frozen 4. Team went 22-3-1 this season. But, hey let's complain about a guy that only scored 10.