Flames Fanatic
Mediocre
TL;DR - I never said Kulak is amazing.
I'm pretty sure we can find plenty of evidence in your posting history to suggest otherwise.
TL;DR - I never said Kulak is amazing.
I'm pretty sure we can find plenty of evidence in your posting history to suggest otherwise.
As a Devils fan, I can offer up Palmieri or Hall for Bennett + Fox.
Pretend?
So either
1) "Momentum" isn't a psychological factor in games
or
2) the Flames have had as many momentum swings in these games associated with our third pair getting trapped in their own zone, usually resulting in goals against, or penalties against, or desperate line changes on the fly. And yes - at times penalties have been taken with Bartkowski on the ice by other individuals because of Bartkowski's inability to deny zone entries or exit the defensive zone early and efficiently.
Something around Bennett for Galchenyuk is what I think we should be pursuing right now. Bennett has looked better on the wing but I truly believe he needs to be free from our expectations/pressures if he's ever going to succeed. Ditto Galchenyuk- he could return to 30 goal form if put in a position to succeed.
Galchenyuk is a left shooting left winger (wanna be center) isn't he?
I think I would rather take a chance on Bennett than make a move for Galchenyuk who potentially has attitude/work ethic issues (based on it now being two coaches he hasn't worked well with) and doesn't really fit that RW need we have.
We've seen Gaudreau at RW in the past, and the exact same things can be said about Bennett. Galchenyuk has just shown that the potential is real (30 goal season, 26 goal season, over 50 points twice), while bennett is still trying to prove that. At this point, I'm not sure Bennett can achieve this here, while Galchenyuk could certainly use a breath of fresh air from Montreal.
I am not sure that the same things can be said about Bennett because I haven't heard any comments from Hartley or Gulutzan about him or seen either of them demote him down to the 4th line.
I guess if we are moving Gaudreau to the RW to try and shoe horn Galchenyuk in there I would rather try it with Bennett first to see if it works with him. If they do that and it doesn't work then sure lets take a look at that deal.
I would hope that there would be a better fit out there for a Bennett deal (ideally right shot with some size) other than Galchenyuk which seems to be a bit too much like for like (left shot, maybe center more potential than production) deal.
He's played on the fourth line for stretches of three separate games this season, including several shifts in the third yesterday. Further to that, all of the Galchenyuk bad attitude rumors have come from the toxic media environment in Montreal rather than from Team Sources (one report of him needing rehab came from a former coach known to go on drunken DUI rants about players, etc). Add to this that Gally was successful and a top 6 player until Claude Julien got there and the pieces start falling into place. Further, one of the biggest pluses for Gally in his draft here was that he was extremely coachable and smart (the opposite of what we're now hearing...)
I think you're buying into the media too much. Bennett hasn't even come close to sniffing Galchenyuk's jock strap yet in this league. The reason I'm proposing this is that it's a great buy low scenario. The problem is that we're also selling low. The player that you want just isn't available around the league, especially not for Sam Bennett. I also think that if our media was as vicious as Montreal's we'd be up to our knees in stories about Benny's attitude and personal life.
Andersson/Kylington + shinkurak + brouwer for galchenyuk + 3rd
Maybe it would have to be Poirier instead of shinkurak.
Andersson/Kylington + shinkurak + brouwer for galchenyuk + 3rd
Maybe it would have to be Poirier instead of shinkurak.
Flames should be looking to trade Andrew Mangiapane. I love him but this is the perfect opportunity to trade from a position of strength (LHS wingers, since we have Gaudreau/Tkachuk/Ferland/Frolik who are basically our four best wingers) for a possession of weakness (RW). I think with the right team he could become the next Brad Marchand or Jake Guentzal so we have to be very careful to properly sell high on him. He won't flourish here but elsewhere he could explode.
I'd be looking at Daniel Sprong or Kasperi Kapanen personally.
I think Fischer from AZ would be a decent option too, however, I believe they have the same problem in RW depth.
Is there even a team that has a surplus of RW prospects/players? It seems like RW depth generally is the weakness for most teams.
Flames should be looking to trade Andrew Mangiapane. .