So are The Flames Contenders or Pretenders?

[SKRusty]

So are the Flames for Real now with the Real Deal, Lindholm, Hanafin, Derek Ryan, and Austin Czarnik?

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[Deen]

We are a bonadafide playoff team now I think. Once you punch your ticket who knows what can happen.

 

[Lunatik]

Terrible terrible poll. There is this thing called gray area, this is like having a poll where you ask people to rate something 1 to 10 and only give 1 and 10 as the options.

 

[SKRusty]

Terrible terrible poll. There is this thing called gray area, this is like having a poll where you ask people to rate something 1 to 10 and only give 1 and 10 as the options.

Typical response for a guy that goes to the ice cream shop with the most flavors and asks for vanilla. I did not say guaranteed to win a cup I said Contend... there is your grey area. Did the Flames do enough to be mentioned with Nashville and Winnipeg?

Did they do enough to put themselves in a position to win the Pacific?

 

[BobColesNasalCavity]

Typical response for a guy that goes to the ice cream shop with the most flavors and asks for vanilla. I did not say guaranteed to win a cup I said Contend... there is your grey area. Did the Flames do enough to be mentioned with Nashville and Winnipeg?

Did they do enough to put themselves in a position to win the Pacific?

Lmao

I think we’re in that contending position now. A breakthrough from Bennett or Jank and we’d be real dangerous.

 

[Tkachuky]

Option C. Playoff team that hopefully goes on a run. There are 2-3 teams that are contenders as it stands today. We are not one of them.

 

[Volica]

Reserving judgement for now.
Let's see how that blue line stacks up before we start calling ourselves either or.

The forward group is pretty upper middle of the pack. Clearly behind teams like Toronto, Washington, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Winnipeg; but superior to teams like NY (both), Carolina, etc, etc. I have them between 11 and 16 in the league now; depending on how guys like Ryan, Bennett, Jankowski, Neal and others manage.

The defensive group is one of the best ones out there. Now, that's if they play up to snuff. It hinges on a few things:
A) Does Brodano have that 2015 magic?
B) Does Hanifin improve YOY and make that second pairing one of the best league wide

I think the best thing about Kulak and Stone, is that those guys won't hurt you nightly. Both guys are fantastic bottom guys in this league. If Andersson is as good as it looks like he'll be... then we might be talking about the best overall top 7D in the entire league.

Goaltending is still a question mark. Mike Smith isn't a young man; and Gillies and Rittich don't strike me as guys who can hold the fort down (in fact they showed they were completely unable to). If Smith gives us 55-60 games of B levle goaltending, and our backup gives us league average; we're in a good place.

Dunno. This one is really hard to peg. I mentioned the IFs game in another thread. There's a lot of IFs, but a lot of good chances of getting them. I said the same thing last year and wheels fell off.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

That depends on what you mean by "contender". If by "cup contender", then hell no; we're pretenders. If by "playoff contender", we were one had it not been for our shitty powerplay last season. That said, we're a better team now than what we were a few weeks ago, at least on paper.

 

[Lunatik]

Typical response for a guy that goes to the ice cream shop with the most flavors and asks for vanilla. I did not say guaranteed to win a cup I said Contend... there is your grey area. Did the Flames do enough to be mentioned with Nashville and Winnipeg?

Did they do enough to put themselves in a position to win the Pacific?

Grey area would be additional poll options. But you are right about one thing, my response was typical of me because I have no tissue calling out people who make terrible posts or threads that have not been well thought out or and complete and utter bullshit.

 

[Mobiandi]

Bubble team unless we prove otherwise. So pretenders I guess

 

[Flames Fanatic]

On paper? Maybe.

But on paper last year we were saying we had one of the top d-cores in the league.

I like what Treliving has done a lot, so I'll say yes for now, but I agree more options wouldn't have gone amiss.

 

[Calculon]

Too many variables yet to be determined to make that assessment. Ask again at the trade deadline.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

On paper? Maybe.

But on paper last year we were saying we had one of the top d-cores in the league.

I like what Treliving has done a lot, so I'll say yes for now, but I agree more options wouldn't have gone amiss.

We were pretty good defensively 5on5 last season, so yeah.

 

[Baxterman]

Grey area would be additional poll options. But you are right about one thing, my response was typical of me because I have no tissue calling out people who make terrible posts or threads that have not been well thought out or and complete and utter bull****.

If you don’t like it stay out.

But then you wouldn’t get to show everyone what a big internet tough guy you are.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

I know this, up front we’ve lost Ferland, Versteeg who barely played last season and Stajan. We’ve brought in Neal to replace Ferland. Ryan to replace Versteeg, added Lindholm which was hole we needed filled all of last season and also added Czarnik. The roster has been upgraded in every way.

On D, we lost Dougie but I think Hanifin will be as good if not better for our roster. He’s much better at the transition game.

 

[Baxterman]

We have two big areas of concern with coaching and goaltending.

I think the secondary scoring should be better but I don’t trust Peters to set up and use the line-up correctly for that to be a sure thing.

The bottom 6 is marginally improved but still likely well below where we need it to be.

I think the team is better and should compete for the other play-offs but are far from a lock or a Cup contender.

 

[Ace Rimmer]

Still need a bona-fide 1B/2 goalie, but they've filled in the blanks up front.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Yeah.

We were contenders last year. Just need a team to get hot. So much parody in the league right now.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Still need a bona-fide 1B/2 goalie, but they've filled in the blanks up front.

I donno. The Jets has to sign Laurent Brossoit. He’s a complete sieve. Look at the deal Hutton got.

Pretty horrible goalie market this offseason. Just stick with Rittich and Gillies and hope we strike gold. They are better than Brossoit

 

[Ace Rimmer]

I donno. The Jets has to sign Laurent Brossoit. He’s a complete sieve. Look at the deal Hutton got.

Pretty horrible goalie market this offseason. Just stick with Rittich and Gillies and hope we strike gold. They are better than Brossoit

Robin Lehner.

We'd have the craziest duo in the league.

 

[FlamerForLife]

Still need a bona-fide 1B/2 goalie, but they've filled in the blanks up front.

In his presser yesterday Tre said that if the season were to start tomorrow they'd be very comfortable in the goalie tandem, so I don't really think they're looking for another goalie but you never know with Tre.

 

[Skobel24]

In his presser yesterday Tre said that if the season were to start tomorrow they'd be very comfortable in the goalie tandem, so I don't really think they're looking for another goalie but you never know with Tre.

He also said the Hamilton rumors were false. If he sees the opportunity to upgrade the goaltending, he'll take it.

 

[InfinityIggy]

This is probably the greatest team assembled since the 80s. I dare say we are the Real Deal.

 

[InfinityIggy]

In his presser yesterday Tre said that if the season were to start tomorrow they'd be very comfortable in the goalie tandem, so I don't really think they're looking for another goalie but you never know with Tre.

This means we will 100% be signing another goalie.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

This is probably the greatest team assembled since the 80s. I dare say we are the Real Deal.

There was a year under Sutter our team was gross to. I think this is close to that.

Edit: It was 08/09

Huselius - Jokinen - Iginla
Tanguay - Langkow - Cammy
Glencross - Conroy - Bertuzzi
Prust - Backlund - Bourque

Regehr - Dion
Bouwmeester - Gio
Vandermeer - Aucoin

Kipper
Noodles

The roster was something like that.