travel_dude

Hiller was lights out for a good stretch in the early season. The Chicago win was one where he stole the win. In the playoffs, Hiller started against the Nucks, for every game, and was really good for most of the series, except for the last game. I don't really fault Hiller for that game, but it almost cost us. Against Anaheim, the first 2 games was the most important, but Hiller was just OK. Ramo came in and did a good, not great, job. My only point is that stats on paper look deceiving. I think signing Ramo is a low-risk move, since the alternative is going with Hiller and Ortio. Ortio's body of NHL work last year was great, and bad. I can't tell you which Ortio will be here next season.

Ramo is trying to get teams interested, if it comes to that. He would be really happy to stay, and would probably even be open to a sign and trade deal. FA for goalies can be great or not-great, depending or needs. If they offerred him $3m+ he would likely take it, over stewing by the phone July 1st through whenever. Raymond was an overpayment for a 1-dimensional player, both in term and dollars. Not a big deal, since he seemed like he could be a good fit at the time, but his entire body of work should have been looked at, not just a year in TO. Seto was a guy everyone was avoiding. Not a big deal because he was demoted rather quickly, but his presence likely accounted for at least one or two losses. I'm not sure where you saw any great examples of Raymond's "defensive" game. I don't think he really has one, other than transition to offense. His speed would be helpful on the forecheck, but really Ferland has more tools in that respect.

The fact that Ortio is still rehabbing is very concerning to me. July 1st will come without knowing if it affected his play going forward. If Ramo is signed elsewhere, he would not be a good starting goalie option. I agree about your assessment of BT. He is going to make minor mistakes (Raymond, Seto), but he also isn't spending 10m on one player.

His comments were somewhat telling: Possession Bigger but only with skill/speed Bigger by itself was not the answer Signing Gio, Bouma and Backlund Carrying 3 goalies does not make sense, but didn't say which two he wanted to keep Already had a idea of the guys he wants to move forward with, and those he doesn't Defensive depth killed us Wants T-Spoon to come in a "take" a spot away from someone Seemed to be leaning towards re-signing Schlemko No "final piece" at the expense of long-term goals will be hunted 5-year cap plan for signings Poirier and Arnold were mentioned, so they may get a real shot next year. Talked about how Arnold was derailed by the serious injury, as was T-Spoon's pre-season recovery that messed up his season start. From that I took away the idea that guys like Bollig, Raymond, Potter and Diaz may not be Flames next season. Lesser lights like Byron (possession) may get resigned, but would be more of a speciality player. Engelland may end up being a 7th D.

Giving Wideman 28 minutes was a mistake, but the only reasonable solution without disrupting both top pairs. Playing him 20 minutes allows him to make use of his (limited) speed. Russell did cover his deficiencies, but at the same time, left us with a physical guy smaller than 75% of the forwards he was facing. Pair Wideman with a physical, bigger version of Russell and you are set. Pair Russell with a bigger physical guy and you are set. All three pairs have a balance of power and can be rolled with similar minutes.

He has been pretty consistent in putting up points over his tenure with the Flames, so there is no reason to believe he can't put up similar numbers this year. If it drops off, then you have to ask whether he is worth investing long term. But you also have to wonder what you are going to get to replace his numbers. Are you going to have to pay $6m plus in FA, which seems to be a growing trend. Do you have to add some decent prospects to get a younger version of Hudler? Again, how much will that cost and will they be the right type of player. As a top 6 player, we have none better yet. In a year's time, will we have relagated him to the 3rd line? If so, they he is expendable.

Saying Wideman is slowing down seems strange, since he had a career year. The previous year was bad due to multiple injuries. If he is your offensive D-man, then you pair him up with the guy that gets the defensive work done. Trading him makes us weaker offensively. Russell could up his defensive game if his backup was a defense first player, but his best year was still only 7 goals. Wideman and Gio both have 2-3 really good years ahead of them before we see much tailing off. Likely Gio tails off due to his hard-nosed play.

I would settle for a defensive, punishing D-man. Engelland is only 1/2 that. Having Russell and Wideman on the same pair tells the opposite tale. Two offensive-minded players. If you had a faster Regehr-like player with Wideman or Russell you would be better off. One takes the offense, the other crushes players entering the zone or cycling the puck. Gio/Brodie (Brodano) is a study in that kind of pairing. Gio takes offense, and Brodie covers both sides if Gio pinches. Or vice-versa. Only thing lacking is the punishing hits, but Gio does his fair share. The third pair (Diaz/Engelland/Schlemko/Smid) lacks the shut-down/hard-hitting guy. Smid and Engelland are too slow. Schlemko is too small. Diaz is not a great 1st pass or real offensive threat. Wotherspoon is a bit of both, but too light yet to be a punishing D-man. His skating is good, but his offense is unproven so far. Morrison is an unknown, but is reported to be somewhat mean. Smid was bad with Wideman or Russell. I think moving on from Smid, Engelland, and Diaz is likely a good thing. Petry was a guy I was high on when EDM was looking to move him, but he is likely to get a tidy sum at FA time.

Lumping Engelland in with other big D-men is not really fair. If Russell was bigger than 5'10", he might have had an easier time with the Maroon/Getzlaf/Perry line. He has the heart of a lion, but he can't take out a guy 5 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier 20+ minutes per game. I would take a combo of Brodie's skills, Gio's toughness and Kanzig's size every day. Vancouver's biggest guy is Edler (6'3" 215 pounds, not exactly bruiser size) and is not a fierce player. They were afraid of taking hits. If Big Buff or Ferland or Chara is coming at your D-men, do you want to have a Kanzig size player or a Russell size player?

He made two or three saves when it counted. We won because he made those saves. He was not the go-to guy in the last month, so he is ready, but a little off. I think he gets the rest of the games in this series.

The only way you let Ramo walk is if you have signed a better free agent or are 100% sure of the replacement. I have no issue with Hiller/Ramo until we have a better option. Do you want to let him go to another team and have to play him? I would rather play against Hiller next season. Deeds has pointed out the loophole in the waiver at the start of the season (no reason to doubt him), so you have 3 guys competing for two spots (4 if you include Gillies). Top 2 get the Flames, the others go to Stockton. I actually think we haven't seen the best of Ramo. He has gotten better over the year. He was a late bloomer, if you want.

Hiller will get the start for Game 1. Derek Wills ‏@Fan960Wills 6 mins6 minutes ago Jonas Hiller gets the start in goal for #Flames in Game 1 vs. #Ducks. #CGYvsANA

If you look back on the season, you see how the goalies both play 3-4 games in a row, only to play a bit of a stinker the next game. Yes, the Flames leave them out to dry somewhat, but both goalies are famous for letting in at least 1-2 softies in those games. With Hiller, you have to remember why they went with the other two guys. He wasn't getting it done in the playoffs. He has been good for us this year and the playoffs, but it remains to be seen if he can continue.

The difficult thing with Hiller and Ramo is that they are both good for about 4 games in a row. They are a great regular season tandem, and Hartley has to figure out what the shelf life is for the next series.

The biggest issue with recovery is getting the mobility and strength back. That takes time. When you lose use of your arm for even a week, you have very little muscle mass and your arm forgets how to move. The physio is intense.

I'm not sure it is a wise thing to let walk a guy that provided equal numbers to Hiller in the regular season. Yes, I get that he was injured and we had Ortio come up and play outstanding. Ramo is better than most of the backups in the league, at least from my perspective. If Ortio comes in at TC and blows the doors off, then we have a replacement for Ramo or Hiller.

We could have gone with either Hiller or Ramo in the playoffs, if Ramo had come back a week sooner. Both have been clutch for us. Berra may have seen his game rebound a bit in COL, but I watched some of his games and he stunk it up. Bu-bye. He was a poor choice over Ramo last season, and created the need for Hiller in the off-season.

Wotherspoon and Morrison are in a similar boat after this season. We have some guys that could replace Smid, Engelland and Schlemko, but it remains to be seen how soon. For now, I will give Spoon the benefit of the doubt, depending on how he does in the playoffs.

You have me there. I am actually thinking he may be higher on the pecking order than Wotherspoon, but for a different reason. Spoon is more in the shutdown mode, while Morrison is higher offensive potential.

The top 4 has done a valiant job. On some teams they would be all top 4, while on others, only 2 would be. Do you only want to stay the same at best, considering all 4 have had career years? Or do you continually seek to at minimum stay the same, and more likely improve? We have to decrease the number of shot attempts, shots on goals and goals against.

I get what you are saying, but the bottom line is we don't even have prospects trending towards a top 4 role. Diaz and Schlemko are bottom 2. Wotherspoon could become a top 4, but we don't know (his offense doesn't suggest this, unless you consider a top 4 to be strictly shutdown). Ramage, Kulak, Culkin are possible NHL'ers in the future, but again, likely bottom 2. Kanzig, Rafikov, Gilmour, Mattsson, Roy and Hickey...These guys are a few years from projecting, but apart from Rafikov (QB on PP), I don't know if any will even make the NHL. We need top 4 D-men in the system, ready to step up. We lost Gio for the biggest part of our season, and almost didn't make it. As our senior defence keep aging, they become more likely to be lost for injuries. Two years in a row, Gio was injured. Last year Wideman was out with a wrist issue and came back flat. As much as Diaz and Engelland have taken bigger roles on this team, we can't expect to improve if that is our solution to lack of depth. Making the playoffs is great, but we want to improve every year. We can't just say "we have top 4 now so we are set".

We do know he wanted to take on Cam Ward's salary for their pick. Widely reported. You are right that we can't evaluate what trades he didn't make, but the fact they weren't means he didn't take asking price. That is good to me.

Agreed that Sam was a no-brainer. But what he didn't do was trade up to get Sam (or other) at 2nd or 3rd. He didn't trade up to get Ekblad. The asking price would have killed us. One of the things he tried to do was get another low pick from Carolina by taking on a bad contract. Didn't work out. The GlenX trade didn't hurt us, and at least we have some futures for him. The Sven trade was bad asset management. Trading when the value is lowest. If you need to up the value of a player, don't sit him in the pressbox or on the farm. I like the way he talks and what he says. He is a good choice for a rebuild. He didn't get too hyped on what he has as a team, nor did he bring in rentals for a playoff push. Some of the later deals at TDL seemed low cost, but who knows what they wanted from the Flames.

I get the lack of love for Backlund (injuries, lack of offense). But he is the best possession forward we have. He regularly faces the toughest competition. Unless you have one of the rookies show repeatedly that can do that, losing him would set us back more than you think.

I see Raymond falling out of favour with the coaches and GM. He isn't living up to his previous year or his promise. I can see him being traded as early as October. LW's who have passed him on the depth chart? Bouma, Ferland, Johnny Hockey...Ferland has potential to be more than a Bollig, so he may just replace him. He may also start scoring, and keep a spot in the top 9, after Bouma comes back.