Speculation: Armchair GM Thread Part ∞ - Fix This Team Plox

[Otzelor]

I guess he´d be pretty happy to return to his Hometown; I mean I would be.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

Do it!

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Rattie is pretty awful. Not interested.

 

[Calculon]

There's potentially three spots up for grabs based on tonight's line up (if Brouwer's exposed it's because they found a better right winger to protect, which would still leave three spots)

Tkachuk-Backlund-Frolik
Gaudreau-Monahan-XXX (formerly Versteeg)
Ferland-Bennett-Brouwer
XXX-Stajan-XXX (formerly Bouma and Hamilton respectively)

Trading Bouma for Colborne takes up one of those bottom two spots which I'd much rather see available for a prospect to win if they're good enough. The other fourth line spot should be a rotating competition between Hathaway (who'll need to go through waivers next year), Bouma (if he's still around) and Hamilton (ditto). Acquiring Colborne essentially guarantees him one of those spots because the threshold for a benching or waiving is so much higher than it is with Bouma.

Versteeg's spot is where they should be looking for a permanent upgrade, e.g. Oshie, Bjorkstrad, Radulov, Ritchie, Williams, McCarron, Silfverberg, Baptiste, Pastrnak, McCarron, Scherbak, etc. If they find that better right winger before the expansion draft, then they'll have to expose Brouwer, who's hopefully taken freeing up a roster spot. I'd much rather see that available for a Pribyl, Mangiepane, or Jankowski (move Stajan to the wing) than essentially waste it on Colborne. And with the Flames needing to sign two goalies, four defencemen along with Bennett, Ferland and perhaps an expensive right wing free agent, they'll need to conserve all the cap space they can, which may necessitate moving Bouma's salary just to make things work. So the idea of adding salary with Colborne is even more impractical. And if none of the prospects are ready, the Flames can always find cheap stop gaps like Versteeg, Hemsky, Parenteau, Eaves, Wingels, Iginla, etc., at the last minute.

Bottom line is that there's no need to revisit the Colborne show. It was done, it was wholly forgettable, it's time to move one.

What this organization has kind of failed to grasp over the years is that competition works both ways. Veterans ensure that prospects need to be better to win a spot but prospects force veterans to be on their toes if they want to keep theirs. That dual competition is necessary to prevent complacency from the replaceable periphery guys (Brouwer, Stajan, Bouma, Versteeg, Wideman, Engelland, Jokipakka, etc.). That's why there needs to be spots available on a regular basis to foster that competition rather than filling them with mediocre retreads and placing the burden entirely on non-phenom prospects to displace millions in salary from a penny pinching ownership.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

the threshold for a benching or waiving is so much higher than it is with Bouma.

Is it though? Bouma has coach's pet attributes like shot blocking and aesthetically pleasing hits, whereas Colborne at this point is a reclamation project. Neither has been great this season, but even as a Bouma fan I would admit that Colborne has more offensive ability. Both are under contract through next year, meaning both are at risk of either being Bollig'd to Stockton or Wideman'd all season until the contract is up.

Now I don't disagree at all with the crux of your point - I too think Klimchuk, Jankowski, Pribyl, and yes, Poirier, could be good contributors and I think the injuries to guys like Stajan, Jones, and Colborne in 2014-15 were probably vital for us to make the playoffs because it forced Hartley's hand with Jooris, Granlund, Ferland etc. But at this point we are stuck with Bouma who just does not fit the cycle game that Gulutzan wants to play.

 

[DFF]

What this organization has kind of failed to grasp over the years is that competition works both ways. Veterans ensure that prospects need to be better to win a spot but prospects force veterans to be on their toes if they want to keep theirs. .

I totally agreed. These 4-0 games are directly related to lack of competition, lack of focus, lack of motivation. Why work hard if your job is secured already.....seriously even guy like Bennett should not have a gauranty NHL job.

 

[Calculon]

Is it though? Bouma has coach's pet attributes like shot blocking and aesthetically pleasing hits, whereas Colborne at this point is a reclamation project. Neither has been great this season, but even as a Bouma fan I would admit that Colborne has more offensive ability. Both are under contract through next year, meaning both are at risk of either being Bollig'd to Stockton or Wideman'd all season until the contract is up.

Now I don't disagree at all with the crux of your point - I too think Klimchuk, Jankowski, Pribyl, and yes, Poirier, could be good contributors and I think the injuries to guys like Stajan, Jones, and Colborne in 2014-15 were probably vital for us to make the playoffs because it forced Hartley's hand with Jooris, Granlund, Ferland etc. But at this point we are stuck with Bouma who just does not fit the cycle game that Gulutzan wants to play.

Granted it's two different coaches, but it took Colborne literally costing the Flames two points to finally get healthy scratched under Hartley despite also being in a contract year. With Guluztan, Bouma and Hathaway have been alternating every few games for the last couple of months. Can't see why that wouldn't continue next season if both stick around.

And it's not that Bouma is especially worth keeping, I'd just rather not trade him for Colborne. I'd prefer to look at someone like Jimmy Hayes if the Bruins want more grit/save 100K/change of scenery, even if the Flames have to add something small to Bouma.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

Calc, I'd probably do Bouma for Hayes as well. But I don't think Hayes is an upgrade on Colborne

 

[Dertell]

Jimmy Hayes is really bad and worse than Colborne.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

I think we should trade for Chris Wideman. Solves our RHD need.

 

[Calgareee]

I think we should trade for Chris Wideman. Solves our RHD need.

But it doesn't fix our Wideman problem

Zebras triggered

 

[Calculon]

That's kind of the point. I'd much prefer someone known to be very, very underwhelming and hope for a miraculous turnaround then revisit the Colborne disappearing act. It's been done; there's no hope there.

Terrible analogy time:
There's a 10 metre brick wall in your way

Colborne: Trying to get through by banging your head on the wall until something breaks

Hayes: Trying to jump over based on the minuscule chance a gust of wind (i.e., Gaudreau/Monahan/Backlund) carries you over

Niether are particularly desirable but a small chance is slightly better than zero. The fact that Hayes is a right hand shot is basically the tipping factor over Colborne.

The obvious preference is to just trade Bouma for a pick and pick up someone useful/or find something in the system (Pribyl/Poirier/Mangiapane) to emerge. But the chances of either of those happening is probably about the same as Jimmy Hayes jumping over a 10 metre wall.

 

[Body Checker]

Wonder if Garrisson or Coburn would be a good pickup for #4 d spot? Tampa might have to add to get a team to bite on one of the contracts. Yzerman has to absolutely move players and salary for next year. Wonder if something like this would work -

Kulak, Bouma, 7th for Coburn, 2nd

Or even go further and add Filppula who has to be protected due to NMC -

Kulak, Bouma, Stajan, 7th for Coburn, Filppula, 2nd

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

Yeah Calc, I'd take either one for Bouma, honestly. I just didn't view Colborne as a total failure here (as you did). He's a complimentary piece that can can contribute and has size. I like that Hayes is RH, but Colborne is probably more physical. Both have more upside than Bouma and maybe Hayes would get it going here. He should be a 35-40pt top 9 RW.

 

[Mobiandi]

Colborne's a possession black hole which goes against everything in Gulutzan's system. He's never coming back here

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

I think we should deal Poirier for Virtanen.

 

[Lunatik]

Colborne's a possession black hole which goes against everything in Gulutzan's system. He's never coming back here

To be fair, the Flames are Hartley were a possession black hole as a group and so is Colorado.

 

[Backlund]

Why the **** do people want Colborne back? I hope to never see him in a Flames uniform again.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

Why the **** do people want Colborne back? I hope to never see him in a Flames uniform again.

Again, the original suggestion was Bouma for Colborne. I don't hate it, I'm over Bouma.

 

[Backlund]

Again, the original suggestion was Bouma for Colborne. I don't hate it, I'm over Bouma.

Even without Hartley here to overuse him I still wouldn't do it. Colborne was pretty much useless until the games didn't matter. He's a very frustrating player to watch and I doubt he'd do well under Gulutzan.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

Even without Hartley here to overuse him I still wouldn't do it. Colborne was pretty much useless until the games didn't matter. He's a very frustrating player to watch and I doubt he'd do well under Gulutzan.

I think it's hard to say for sure, Chiasson has looked good. It's one of those things that we wouldn't know until we tried.

 

[Anglesmith]

Even without Hartley here to overuse him I still wouldn't do it. Colborne was pretty much useless until the games didn't matter. He's a very frustrating player to watch and I doubt he'd do well under Gulutzan.

Well, I did like Colborne's game in our playoff run when his wrist was injured. And it's worth noting that despite those games in the second half last season becoming less meaningful for our team, they were still big games for the opposition a lot of the time, and he was successful in spite of that.

So maybe it's less a correlation of his game with the importance of the game and more just a coincidence; maybe he just had a slow start and then picked it up, which wouldn't be that out of the ordinary. Either way, I never saw Colborne as a useless player as a winger. Far from it.

 

[Backlund]

Well, I did like Colborne's game in our playoff run when his wrist was injured. And it's worth noting that despite those games in the second half last season becoming less meaningful for our team, they were still big games for the opposition a lot of the time, and he was successful in spite of that.

So maybe it's less a correlation of his game with the importance of the game and more just a coincidence; maybe he just had a slow start and then picked it up, which wouldn't be that out of the ordinary. Either way, I never saw Colborne as a useless player as a winger. Far from it.

Well useless is probably too harsh but he was pretty inconsistent and I never liked his game. He was pretty good in the second half of the season, I just didn't think he would ever be able to play like that consistently. I was glad to hear he wasn't going to be re-signed and I definitely don't want him coming back again.

 

[Flames Fanatic]

I don't see Colborne as an upgrade on Brouwer, Frolik or even Chiasson. So he'd probably be on the 4th line and not successful there either.

 

[SaintMorose]

Colbornes 2 points in 45 games don't really scream upgrade on anyone to me. I'd honestly rather call up guys that are struggling in the AHL to see what we have in them or try to give them a boost.

At a bare minimum at least they'll skate and pressure the puck.