travel_dude

Ramage is nothing special, so far. Kulak was out-performed by Culkin and only made it back to the AHL (from ECHL) when Culkin was lost for the season. Schlemkp is fine. No word on Diaz. Wotherspoon had a good end to last season, so I think he has promise. Playing with Seth Jones in junior, he had an amazing season to end his junior career. Engelland is serviceable. He brings nore toughness than the rest of the D core, so we need him for the playoffs.

Bouma is not in the $3m tier of players. Lpve the player, but he is a 3-4th liner that can play up to the level of a 2nd line on our team. He is a heart and soul player, and deserves a raise. Not that much, though.

Not sure who you were responding to, but I will give you some of my thoughts: Raymond 57gp 12g 11a 23pts -8 1gwg Jooris 60gp 12g 12a 24pts +1 4gwg Backlund 52gp 10g 17a 27pts +4 2gwg Backlund and Jooris played against top lines or in a shutdown role. Raymond was mostly given the high ground. Jooris and Raymond were similar in TOI per game. Jooris is a rookie. Jooris can play effectively on the PP and PK, while Raymond is mostly only PP. Jooris can play center or RW. Raymond can only play effectively on the LW. Jooris plays hard on the puck, while Raymond gives it up fairly easily. Forgetting salary, this was an experiment that didn't work out. No hard feelings, but he takes up a roster spot that a rookie/sophomore could easily replace.

Miller will be a liability for the Nucks. Play him if they want and watch him struggle again this year. Watch the crowd turn on him. Would it make sense to send down the guy you called up to be the backup? Are you thinking Thiessen or Gillies? Gillies, yes I agree. Sign him and play him as a backup or send him to Addy.

Wideman is exactly what we paid for; an offensive D-man that isn't much of a liability. Not much different than a Yandle or Franson. These guys are not Norris material. Brodie, on the other hand, is Norris calibre. He made Gio a better player. He is a smooth-skating guy in the mold of J-Bow, but a little tougher to play against. Compare him to a Duncan Keith in the early days of his career.

I don't think Raymond is any better all round than Byron. Byron has speed and hits/blocks, but isn't finishing. Raymond has speed and finish. If you like Raymond, then Sven was a similar player. Sven at least has ability to grow as a player.

Only problem with carrying 3 goalies is that you leave yourself with only room for 12-14 forwards and 6-8 D-men (total 23). Fine to carry more players than that up to opening night, but you have to trim the roster then. Two goalies is what you can carry and have them play normal rotation. Sending one down results in a waiver situation. Trading one means you are giving up one of them. I would be fine with signing Ramo, letting them fight it out and picking the two top dogs. Trade one if you can, or take the chance on the waiver loss (TBH, the last day of cuts is the safest - assuming some team isn't desperate). Ramo and Ortio are similar style goalies, I think. Hiller plays deep and doesn't give much room to deek him out. You watch him when the play is away from the net, and it looks like he is sitting down for a rest. Ramo is very lively, and takes away a frontal assault. But he can get caught out of position. Ortio is more technical than Ramo, and uses his abilities to cover the net.

Poor kid, exposed to that. Loses 3-1.

No way they take a chance sending down a healthy goalie with playoffs on the line. He is ready, and really surprised that he was cleared 2 weeks before schedule. I agree on the rusty part. If Ramo comes back, Joni joins the Black Aces.

I agree that Engelland was an overpayment both in term and dollars. It did help us get to the cap floor. He provides toughness that Bollig can't, due to minutes and competition played. He can always be bought out. Not a major issue in my mind. Missed Diaz signing I think. Was a good value pickup, moreso than Potter. But both have played this year due to injuries. My biggest problem with Baertschi is the timing of it. It deleted a player from Addy, and gave a possible division opponent an asset for a draft pick. It's not like a 31st overall pick, it will be in the 40's. The opther problem was the disconnect bewteen coaching and management. He should not have been recalled if he wasn't going to be played.

Some are comparing him to Dekeyser, which could be considered a good thing. In 5 games with the baby Flames he has 1 goal and 4 assists. Not a bad start.

JJ, let me answer your question with a quote from a FN article from 2012.... With a December birthday, Cervenka was draft eligible in the summer of 2004. At that point he had one professional season in the Czech "elite" league, playing 15 games and notching 1 assist. His 8 playoff games were hardly spectacular either, but at this point Cervenka was a 17 year old kid who was drastically undersized. In fact, as noted by Robin Brownlee yesterday after the signing, Cervenka was just 127 pounds in his draft season. It's therefore not surprising Cervenka went undrafted, and his next couple seasons in the Czech league were fairly lacking - though his games played and ice time both increased. After a mediocre season which saw Cervenka post a 6-6-12 line in 51 games, the small Czech briefly lit up the playoffs, scoring 3-1-4 in 6 games. He followed that post-season success (which would be common a feature of his play) with a 2007-08 campaign where he scored 19-11-30 in 41 games and 4-4-8 in 14 playoff games. His true break through was in 2008-09. He was the second leading scorer on his team, Slavia Praha HC, managing 59 points in 51 regular season games and another 24 points in 18 post-season games. His last season in the Czech league was his best: 30-43-73 in 50 games. That was also the best season by any scorer in the Czech league that year. In 2010-11 Roman Cervenka signed with Avangard Omsk of the KHL. He played on a line with a semi-well known hockey player named Jaromir Jagr and scored 61 points in 51 games, best on the team. When Jagr left for the Philadelphia Flyers, there was a falloff in his regular season play, but he still led Omsk in scoring and again absolutely lit up the playoffs; with 11-11-22 in 20 games, it didn't seem to matter who Cervenka played with - just that he played

Unless Potter solidifies his game, I don't see him getting an NHL contract next season. No issue with a 2-way contract, and if claimed after TC, then so be it. Diaz has improved, but is still just a 7D in my mind. Smid will get traded, bought out or retire, even though I like his work ethic (sacrifices much like Bouma). That leaves Engelland as a 5/6 guy. Morrison and Wotherspoon could very well make the team next season. Spoon missed TC, so he didn't get the love some of the other guys did. Morrison appears to have the ability to translate to a pro game, and is closer to the typical good years of a defenseman. Schlemko is possibly the odd man out, unless they chose to buy out Engelland.

See link about that very subject... http://flamesnation.ca/2015/4/6/a-brief-look-at-calgary-s-reserve-list Specifically.... The reserve list is important because, as I learned regarding Douglas Murray, players not on an NHL team's reserve list as of the trade deadline cannot play for that team in the post-season. This is also why any UFA college goalie, such as Boston University's Matt O'Connor, couldn't play for the Flames in the playoffs, but both Mason McDonald and Jon Gillies - if signed - could. So, if Gillies is signed out of college this year, he can play in the playoffs.

The point this year was to penalize and fine diving. Whether they thought Ferland had any fault or it, it doesn't matter. Call the diving and get those (Canuck) plays out of the game. The next two choices for nets are going to be huge decisions; Ramo is very good on the road, but Hiller has been good enough recently to get another start. Tough call. I think I would go with Ramo against STL and Hiller against EDM.

Agreed that we aren't elite in net. We are around league average. There have been games where Ramo and Hiller kept us around long enough to mount a comeback. There have also been games where goaltending has been the reason for the loss. Those games were, to a certain extent, also the result of inadequate defense; too much chasing, not effective first pass, or giving up the blue-line. As much as Hiller was a steadying force, I think we can move beyond him and give the reins to Ramo and Ortio. I'm not 100% sold on Ortio, but capable backups are a lot easier to find than a Ramo. I would be in favour of trading Hiller if he brings back a decent return.

I think Ramo is fine in the 40 game range. If we resigned him and went with Hiller/Ramo, we would be one injury away from a problem. Ortio would be the natural choice to bring up, but we would have to keep him up. A goalie on waivers anytime after the start of the season would be easy pickings. I am also not 100% convinced Ortio would clear in October, but we may have to take that chance. If we chose not to re-sign Ramo and go with Hiller/Ortio, I think we are risking regression from this year. Hiller is also on the final year of his contract. We may lose him to UFA at the end of 2015/16.

The worst thing we can do is assume that Ortio is ready to take on the role of the backup, and that Hiller has more left in the tank for next year. We need to follow up a strong year with improvement next year. Ramo is key to giving us room to improve, as he is getting better the more games he plays. Minimum 2 year extension, to give us time to ensure Ortio is ready, and to bring in Gillies after a few years.

What does Shannon know...Ramo is keeping us in games this year, but he has been doing that for most of the season. Ramo isn't about to ask for too much, knowing he could be a UFA in a bad market. He will not get big dollars as a UFA. He could stand to get a contract with the Flames. It all depends on how long he continues to play good hockey. He may not give up the net to Hiller.

I don't have a problem giving him big money. I simply said that I don't think he would look for PK Subban money. Maybe he signs a declining value contract (8,7,6,6,5) or maybe not. He may even ask for a NTC in lieu of big dollars.

He is worth that for sure. I doubt he asks for that much. He will likely sign for a shade under $7m, just for the sake of the team, to prevent any future cap-hell situations. TBH, I think he feels that he is truly lucky to play/captain a team like the Flames, so anything more than he is making is a bonus. If you offered him 5x$7m, I think he would smile, sign, excuse himself, and be yelling "Start the car, start the car!".

We are in agreement Deeds. I was just focusing on the most recent example. Each of our D has stepped up in various games. Engelland has done it, Smid, Diaz.... I like to think that we have enough heart to help with the loss of Gio. Brodie is missing his play the most, and while I think Engelland has enough game to increase his minutes, I can't see him being effective anything more than 12-15 minutes. He had one game where he really stepped up, but I can't see him doing that long-term.

I will take any effort from our top 4D that tries to prevent a goal. Wideman cleared a tap-in goal in a previous game, Russell stops almost as much as a goalie, and Brodie has to try to keep the other D from being totally exposed.

Too true. Do we want to start the season with Ortio as a backup and not playing well? He improved with a lot of games, but how do you do that in the NHL?

At the end of the season and playoffs, teams will look at the results from their goaltending and decide what needs to be done. Some will extend what they have (MAF), let other walk (Fasth), or try to get in ona any FA tenders available. I admit some backups are the ones that are usually traded (Bernier), but not all of those work out. My point is that every season is different. I prefer to go into the summer with 2 NHL goalies signed. Ortio is NHL potential and probably will steal a job; Ramo flashes brilliance; while Hiller is a solid NHL goalie.