jjgallow Posted May 27, 2013 Report Share Posted May 27, 2013 IMHO, this is a big loss. A big hole to fill on a team that was already lacking talent. http://www.thescore.com/nhl/teams/26-calgary-flames/transactions As possibly the best player on the Heat, I can only assume that it was hard to hear the "merit" rhetoric about how "hard work would pay off with callups", knowing that the Flames are short centers, and watch every other player but him get called up. It would have been a lot easier to just be fair and give Ben a few NHL games than it is to find an AHL replacement for him. I'm not saying he would have caught on, but you never know. And now we're hoped for talented AHL centers. Never caught on in the NHL, but was always Very close. Hard, when his dad (Ryan Walters) is somewhat of an NHL legend. Thanks for everything Ben, now go earn some real money! Feaster has his work cut out for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zirakzigil Posted May 27, 2013 Report Share Posted May 27, 2013 Career AHLer not a big loss. Makes more room for players that have a shot at making the NHL and need ice time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted May 27, 2013 Report Share Posted May 27, 2013 A couple of NHL games isn't keeping Walter here. He is 29 and it is clear he isn't making the NHL full time. His dad is the president of the Heat. Clearly going overseas is the best thing for his career. Good luck to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTech780 Posted May 28, 2013 Report Share Posted May 28, 2013 Not much of a loss, the knock on Walter has always been that he is soft and not defensively sound. There is always players like him available in free agency. One that jumps to mind is T.J. Hensick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cross16 Posted May 29, 2013 Report Share Posted May 29, 2013 Not a loss at all there are several Ben Walter's available in FA every year. This is the right move for him and IMO is zero reflection on the Flames organization and their handling of him this is just an example of a player get the best opportunity he can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrippinVdUb Posted May 29, 2013 Report Share Posted May 29, 2013 If you want career AHL players this team already has a oat load of them, I won't cry over the departure of a guy that will never play for the big club. It is nice to fill your farm team with decent players that can hold down the fort through all the call ups and movement that happens with an affiliate team but at the same time guys like that are a dime a dozen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted May 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2013 ... guys like that are a dime a dozen! anybody got a dime? No arguements....except that at the end of the day, we were dearly lacking in the AHL. Now we're lacking more. Supposedly any easy fix. Yet.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrippinVdUb Posted May 29, 2013 Report Share Posted May 29, 2013 anybody got a dime? No arguements....except that at the end of the day, we were dearly lacking in the AHL. Now we're lacking more. Supposedly any easy fix. Yet.... Ben Street, Quintin Lang, Kris Kylanos, Dustin Sylvester, Greg Nemiz.... Here's 50 cents, hope that helps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted May 29, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2013 Ben Street, Quintin Lang, Kris Kylanos, Dustin Sylvester, Greg Nemiz.... Here's 50 cents, hope that helps? yeah no http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php?type=standings&subType=1&season_id=40&league_id=4&division_id=-1&confId=0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrippinVdUb Posted May 29, 2013 Report Share Posted May 29, 2013 yeah no http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php?type=standings&subType=1&season_id=40&league_id=4&division_id=-1&confId=0 Lol touché Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andymo Posted May 29, 2013 Report Share Posted May 29, 2013 I think NHL prospects need to take a leading role in Abbotsford. If they can't hold down top 6 minutes in the AHL, how can we hope for them to develop into top 6 NHLers. This will hopefully open up an opportunity for the likes of Reinhart or Byron moving up a line and getting a bigger role. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted May 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 I think NHL prospects need to take a leading role in Abbotsford. If they can't hold down top 6 minutes in the AHL, how can we hope for them to develop into top 6 NHLers. This will hopefully open up an opportunity for the likes of Reinhart or Byron moving up a line and getting a bigger role. sigh..... http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php?type=standings&subType=1&season_id=40&league_id=4&division_id=-1&confId=0 "Bigger"... "Byron".... a younger, shorter, less capable Walter. Reinhart: Not an offensive player at the professional level. Barely an offensive player in junior. Like him, love him. He ain't gonna score. Making the players around him less talented won't help either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted May 31, 2013 Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 sigh..... http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php?type=standings&subType=1&season_id=40&league_id=4&division_id=-1&confId=0 "Bigger"... "Byron".... a younger, shorter, less capable Walter. Reinhart: Not an offensive player at the professional level. Barely an offensive player in junior. Like him, love him. He ain't gonna score. Making the players around him less talented won't help either. Kolanos, Walter, Baertschi, Brodie, and Horak will all be gone. That is five of their top six offensive players. So the Flames definitely have some work to do on the AHL club. But finding AHL scoring in free agency isn't hard. Walter, Kolanos, Street, Connelly, Wilson, Jessimen, etc are all players that were cheaply or freely acquired in the last couple of seasons. Plus I think you are underestimating some of the Flames forwards. Byron has produced at near a PPG pace in the AHL and will improve production if given more offensive opportunity. And it is to early to say Reinhart won't produce in pro. He was in a dedicated shut down role as a rookie and still put up decent numbers on a low scoring team. It is a development league. Most teams have constant roster shuffling. The Heat are no different. I would be more concerned about the goal tending. I like Brossoit and Ortio. But they are both (mostly) AHL rookies on a team that lived or died on goal tending. Should be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted May 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 I don't question that the potential was there, with players such as Horak and Byron, etc. In fact, when the Flames picked up these players they were already nearly first-line AHLers. However, rather than develop them as core players, the Flames groomed them to be fourth-liners to fill short-term needs, at a critical age in their development, constantly bouncing them back and fourth between the Flames and the AHL. Thus, they never had the consistency to be the go-to guys in the AHL, and they were never developed to be in an offensive role up here. Because of this development path, I see Byron as continuing that role into his late 20's, and then becoming a career AHLer. But he's Just good enough now that the Heat can't count on him or build their team around him offensively (too many callups into fourth-line roles). Horak has an outside chance to be a core NHL player but I also think he may have missed his best development years. More than likely he'll follow a similar path to Byron, but eventually stick as an NHL journeyman. It's not the players I question, just their development. Feaster has a lot of work to do next year. My concern is that he had a lot of work to do with the Heat last year too, and never really did any of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted May 31, 2013 Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 I don't know what your expectations are for development but they don't seem realistic. But I am not getting drug back into a strange development debate. Suffice it to say you can't have it both ways. You are worried about the absence of players like Walter and Kolanos and yet you are implying that players like Horak, Reinhart, and Byron should be given more opportunity to develop as top 6 players. With Street, Byron, Horak, Granlund, Reinhart, and possibly Nemisz pushing for top 6 C opportunity there wasn't space for Walter. Walter isn't a big loss. Either the existing players have the opportunity to step in or they find a replacement through free agency. It isn't a big soap box moment on the failure of the Flames to develop players. My take on the roster so far: Byron-Street-Rugsegger Sylvestor-Granlund-Hanowski Ferland-Reinhart-Howse Elson-Jones-Aliu Bancks Breen-Ramage Wotherspoon-Cundari Martin-Lamb Ortio Brossoit/Berra The guys in bold are (mostly) new additions. The Flames will probably upgrade the top six and top four via free agency. They will probably also acquire some depth to support call ups and injury. They might even bring on a third veteran goalie just in case (i.e. Brust). But it isn't a bad place to be in May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted May 31, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2013 I don't know what your expectations are for development but they don't seem realistic. http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTech780 Posted June 1, 2013 Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 Here is a list of FA's that can easily replace what Walter provided. Travis Morin Chad Kolarik Kyle Wilson Steven Zalewski Chris Mueller Greg Rallo Bracken Kearns Aaron Gagnon Trevor Smith Nicholas Drazenovic T.J. Hensick Jon Matsumoto Andrew Ebbett Philippe Dupuis Keith Aucoin Ben Maxwell Mike Santorelli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted June 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 1, 2013 Agreed. So...which one of those players are coming to the Heat next year? Because, we've gotten progressively worse each time. If we acquire one of these guys, we could be as good as we were this year. Which was....not nearly good enough to make the playoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyerfan52 Posted June 2, 2013 Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 Agreed. So...which one of those players are coming to the Heat next year? Because, we've gotten progressively worse each time. If we acquire one of these guys, we could be as good as we were this year. Which was....not nearly good enough to make the playoffs. Do you want an AHL champion or a SC winner? AHL rosters are there to be called up when the big league needs a replacement. That's 1 of the reasons 2 way contracts pay bigger $s when the player is on the main club. There are players that can develop by moving up the lines as earned in the NHL while others benefit with time in the CHL (if eligible) or AHL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andymo Posted June 2, 2013 Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 sigh..... http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php?type=standings&subType=1&season_id=40&league_id=4&division_id=-1&confId=0 "Bigger"... "Byron".... a younger, shorter, less capable Walter. Reinhart: Not an offensive player at the professional level. Barely an offensive player in junior. Like him, love him. He ain't gonna score. Making the players around him less talented won't help either. Max Reinhart has the potential to be a decent 2 way NHL centre. He might never be a 65 point guy but you can't just stick him in a "can't score" box and give him no opportunity to develop a well-rounded game. For our better prospects to develop we need to give them more opportunities in more situations or they will never have a chance of reaching their potential. I am not suggesting he start on the first line but with players like Walter out of the mix, hopefully this will open up better opportunities for younger players. Byron definitely has a higher ceiling than Walter as he has aleady hit his in North America. With an injury free campaign, Byron could get some decent numbers in the AHL next year and will probably get a decent run with Calgary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geo35 Posted June 2, 2013 Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 Agreed. So...which one of those players are coming to the Heat next year? Because, we've gotten progressively worse each time. If we acquire one of these guys, we could be as good as we were this year. Which was....not nearly good enough to make the playoffs. I always get a good laugh at your comments on these boards you constantly contradict yourself from one forum to the next. You hate the idea of playing a newly drafted player in the nhl and then wine and cry about a 29 year old AHL player we have leave which opens up more minutes and development time for actual prospects that can develope into NHL'rs. Please make up you mind. You can not have it both ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted June 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2013 I always get a good laugh at your comments on these boards you constantly contradict yourself from one forum to the next. You hate the idea of playing a newly drafted player in the nhl and then wine and cry about a 29 year old AHL player we have leave which opens up more minutes and development time for actual prospects that can develope into NHL'rs. Please make up you mind. You can not have it both ways. So you barely post on here, but you've taken the time to claim that on a team of 20 players that loses Baertschi next year, I'm contradicting myself because I feel that Ben Walter is a loss. Look. Part of the reason guys like Ben Walter are there is for the young prospects to learn from. It has nothing to do with contradicting myself. It has to do with the fact that Player development is complex. It requires planning, patience, and many moving parts. You're referring to threads where I've said that the young players shouldn't get bounced between the AHL and NHL all the time. Well, if your entire AHL team is full of young guys (which we don't have anyway, btw), that's inevitable. That's why you have some talented veterans in the AHL. To teach the youngsters, and also to fill in temporary holes in the NHL due to injuries. There's absolutely no contradiction there, but nice to meet you. ps....anyone who posts frequently on here will contradict themselves. These aren't press releases. This is something we like to do, and it's our current thoughts going directly to the keyboard. But, the people on here who Could catch me on my contradictions (clearly not you) are nice enough not to point them out unless there is some purpose behind it or point they're trying to make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted October 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 I'll admit, the Flames have replaced Ben Walter. My only comment on this: They sure used a lot of draft picks, trades, and two-way contracts to do it. For a guy that "wasn't valuable", Feaster has gone and invested an incredible amount in Bolstering the Heat this year. Is it balanced? I'm not sure. I think they've thrown as many of their centers on the wing that are allowed...some of them may have to move to defence or goal, lol. I have concerns over how room will be made for our future prospect pipeline (Porrier, Klimchuk, Gordon, etc, etc). Seems like he has created a glut of mid-level talent that future prospects (with high-end potential) will have to push through now. Hopefully they are dead accurate in their evaluations these next few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kehatch Posted October 8, 2013 Report Share Posted October 8, 2013 I'll admit, the Flames have replaced Ben Walter. My only comment on this: They sure used a lot of draft picks, trades, and two-way contracts to do it. For a guy that "wasn't valuable", Feaster has gone and invested an incredible amount in Bolstering the Heat this year. Is it balanced? I'm not sure. I think they've thrown as many of their centers on the wing that are allowed...some of them may have to move to defence or goal, lol. I have concerns over how room will be made for our future prospect pipeline (Porrier, Klimchuk, Gordon, etc, etc). Seems like he has created a glut of mid-level talent that future prospects (with high-end potential) will have to push through now. Hopefully they are dead accurate in their evaluations these next few years. You lost me. What trades / 2-way contracts are you referring to? The only guy I can think of is Corban Knight and personally I am ecstatic we have him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjgallow Posted October 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2013 I'll admit this: Ben Walter probably isn't worth extending this discussion to 3 pages. There are a lot more players than Knight, but that's beside the point. I do find it interesting that we're taking opposite stances on the same concept, between here and the Ortio thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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