I totally disagree here. Gagne played on the checking line because he was the only one who could play on the checking line. Tony Amonte a checking winger? are you kidding me? Forget how much he makes, the guy has never been a good defensive forward his entire career. Granted, he was forced to improve under Hitch, but he's certainly not capable of playing on an elite checking line. Gagne was used in that roll because he was the only one capable of the job, it had nothing to do with how much the guys in front of him made.FlyersFan10 said:And as a Flyers fan, I can honestly say that Gagne's talent is being put to waste while he plays on the checking line. A complete and utter waste of talent. Gagne should be an 80 to 90 point scorer in this league. Instead, Hitch has him doing defensive assignments. The man has totally wasted Gagne's offensive ability. Just think what Hitch is going to do to Carter and Richards. I have no confidence in the man what so ever when it comes to developing offensive players because the only thing the man ever thinks about is defense.
I'm extremely pi$$ed with the Flyers organization for wasting Gagne the way they have. And I also get a kick out of some of the comments on here about Gagne. "Well, he can be a future Selke candidate and that 70 points a year is acceptable." Maybe when I get home, I'll have a big glass of milk and take three viagra......
Whatever the case may be, fact of the matter is that the Flyers have WASTED Gagne's talent. This guy was progressing to be one of the best left wingers when Bill Barber was coach. Hitch has done everything to reverse that course. Are you telling me that Amonte couldn't have played on the checking line? No, of course not because he was making 6 million bucks a year. So, in order to justify that salary and Leclair's 9 million, they gave the two of them prime scoring slots while Gagne got the checking assignment. Or wait, is that Hitch's way of saying that the veterans will always come first in his system? After all, he gave Pitkanen peanuts for ice time and we all know about how Seidenberg has failed to progress under Hitch and we also know that Hitch had his hand in dealing Williams for Markov.......
I do strongly believe that Gagne is capable of scoring 70 plus points on a scoring line and that's very good in today's NHL. Factor in everything else that he brings to the table and that'll make him one of the elite players in the NHL. Mike Modano had the talent to score 100 points every year, but Hitch made him into a better player because he made him into a great defensive center who scored 80 points a season and I'd rather have that any day (same thing with Brett Hull). As for his handling of Pitkanen, I think he did just fine dealing with a 19 year old defenseman. He gave him plenty of PP responsibility and defenseman that age should be brought along slowly, no matter how talented they are. As for the Williams deal, I'm pretty sure all flyers fan would make that deal again.
Finally, Hitch will do just fine handling Richards and Carter. He has already indicated that Carter will receive premium minutes and he has also said he plans on moving to a more offensive game, teaching offense first. Both will develop into a very good two-way players and that's what you win cups with.
