Calgary Flames

[deantime419]

I think they wanted to bring a guy in who can share the workload with Ramo and give their team a chance to win night in and night out. If they get their young guys working hard and collectively as a group it'd be discouraging knowing they won't get wins when they deserve it due to goaltending.
Honestly I wouldn't be shocked if Hiller is a huge disappointment here though. 4.5mil x 2years could just as easily be a retirement contract than a "prove me something" contract.
He could be in Europe in a few years.

[Eazy BZ]

I'm hoping Calgary will finish in the bottom 5 again this coming up year. Their in full rebuild mode, gotta do the rebuild right and be patient. They signed Hiller which was a good deal on a short term, but I don't think they'll do much better than they did last year. Maybe petegreg's theory comes true and flames trade Hiller for assets at a later time, Hiller's contract doesn't include a NTC. Here's to hoping to land McDavid….

[pianoman]

I'm honestly so excited about the current group of prospects/rookies at forward.

Gaudreau-Arnold-Bennett
Klimchuk-Poirier-Monahan
+ Jankowski soon.

Mostly excited to see if Gaudreau can hang in the NHL, because if he can... damn that will be fun to watch.

[ShawneePanthers]

How about that Johnny Hockey tonight tho. Against my avs, which kinda sucked, but he's putting up goals like many expected to.

[doulos]

3 more assists for Gaudreau tonight and they were beauty ones as well. The kid can really play. I was awfully skeptical about him earlier, but he's slowly convincing me. Bastard Flames!

[Jordyr77]

I at one point supported Jankowski, and don't get me wrong, he still has time to prove himself, but I feel as though he's not quite as good as where he was drafted. You never know though. Would've liked Teuvo instead of Sieloff+Jankowski. Tough pill to swallow, but Gaudreau was a damn steal. Feaster may have sucked at trading, but him and Weisbrod made some excellent picks. the 2011 draft includes Baertschi, Grandlund, Wotherspoon, Gaudreau, Brossoit. All those players, with the exception of Brossoit have played an NHL game and showed great promise!!

[doulos]

I at one point supported Jankowski, and don't get me wrong, he still has time to prove himself, but I feel as though he's not quite as good as where he was drafted. You never know though. Would've liked Teuvo instead of Sieloff+Jankowski. Tough pill to swallow, but Gaudreau was a damn steal. Feaster may have sucked at trading, but him and Weisbrod made some excellent picks. the 2011 draft includes Baertschi, Grandlund, Wotherspoon, Gaudreau, Brossoit. All those players, with the exception of Brossoit have played an NHL game and showed great promise!!

Hopefully whoever was responsible for making that Jankowsi pick has been let go. It was panned as a bad pick at the time, and it's still a bad pick.

[everfeb]

Have a question about Giordano if you can help. Looking at his career stats he's not produced a lot of points over the years. Was last year an aberration or do you expect him to produce a lot of points/game again this year...maybe a top 10 ppg defenceman?
Also, will Gaudreau stick for the season? Thanks.

[gainerama]

Giordano put up the points last year cause the coach removed any type of shackles on him and allowed him to play anyway he wants. Since he became the Captain, he's also playing at a lot higher level now that everyone on the roster is looking to him for leadership and he's elevated himself with the new responsibility. Expect more of the same from him this season cause it seems like he turns it on even more when the pressure is on.

[everfeb]

Thanks for replying "gainerama". Thinking of putting him on my pool roster as one of 4 d-men. Not allowed to put Karlson, PK, Weber, Keith, Yandle or Hedman on our roster so even if he ends up top 15 in ppg this year he will be one of the top scoring d-men in our pool. An injury would be problematic as he would have to be replaced by another Flames D.

[doulos]

Monahan might not play tonight due to illness. Should be a fun game to watch -I'm excited and I hate both teams!

[horrorfan]

Calgary 5 Edmonton 2. This could be a long season for the Flames but I'll take this any day.

[mister_mcgoo]

For whatever reason I've watched a lot of Flames games so far (all of them so far actually...though not completely). Part of it is that they've been on the road playing Eastern teams so the starts are earlier but aside from that they're proving a lot of fun to watch.

I give them full marks for effort, they're getting handily outplayed by the superior competition but there is zero quit in their game, they keep pushing back and the results are telling, they're having success against some of the better teams in the league. It's definitely very much a 'bend don't break' philosophy but still I'm impressed by the tenacity and hard work. They provide a stark contrast to teams like Edmonton, Carolina, Buffalo etc who don't look like they have the first clue on the ice and aren't trying very hard to work it out. I love underdog scrappy teams like this, fun to watch.

[rainydrinkwater]

They were the same last year and in fact have been a very lunch pail bunch since Hartley took over. He sad from the beginning that his team may be outplayed while building it's core but very few times would they be out worked. I thought he was talking out of his ass at first but the proof is in the pudding.

[mister_mcgoo]

They were the same last year and in fact have been a very lunch pail bunch since Hartley took over. He sad from the beginning that his team may be outplayed while building it's core but very few times would they be out worked. I thought he was talking out of his ass at first but the proof is in the pudding.

Definitely, that's the other thing I meant to mention, that they picked up where they left off last year and built upon it. Brodie looks fantastic, Colborne is finally blossoming and the young prospects have looked good despite their youth.