I've obviously been targeting "question marks" in this musings series. With Boyd and Moss, it was a question of how and to what degree they will contribute next season. With Prust it's more a question of "why is this guy here at all?"
After acquiring Jim Vandermeer near the trade dadline, Sutter admitted to inquiring about the rearguard while he was in Chicago earlier in the year. The Hawks asking price was a young tough guy - Brandon Prust. That apparently scuttled the deal.
There's been a couple of eyebrow raisers for Flames fans this summer. Cammalleri, Tanguay and Bertuzzi come to mind. One that slid under the radar - and has made less and less sense as the off-season has progressed - was the re-signing of Brandon Prust to a one way contract. Now, we can safely infer based on this and the fact that he wouldn't move the kid for an established NHLer (whom he also covetted) that Sutter likes Prust a lot. Still, this one-way thing doesn't make a lick of sense for a number of reasons:
1.) The prime reason - Prust hasn't done much to warrant it. Beyond gaining notoriety for shadowing a young Sidney Crosby during the Memorial cup several years ago, Prust has had a fairly unremarkable career. Since turning pro, he's averaged 30 points a season in the AHL. His PIM totals have been impressive (294, 211 and 248 consecutively) for those who care about that sort of thing, although many QC fans report that the bulk of those triple digit figures are made up of stupid, untimely penalties. The reviews from followers of baby Flames have been uniformly unimpressive.
The young shit-disturber also had a cup o' coffee with the big boys in 06/07 where he managed just 1 shot and 25 PIM in 10 games. Again, not exactly noteworthy.
2.) The Flames roster is packed to the gills and in significant cap trouble. At the time of Prusts signing it kind of made sense because Roy wasn't a Flame and it looked like Marcus Nilson was going to go away. In addition, if there's depth that could be reasonably hidden in the AHL, it's Brandon Prust: he wouldn't be exposed to waivers by the call-up/send down process and isn't going to be much of an impact player on the Flames anyways. He's text-book "injury filler".
It's true that Prust could still be sent back to the AHL without much of a hitch...beyond the nuisance of paying him 500k to play there. If Prust is inevitably sent down, it naturally begs the question "why did you sign an unproven kid on a more than full roster to that kind of contract in the first place?"
3.) It goes against established Sutter doctrine. Almost every prospect not named "Dion Phaneuf" that has made the Flames during his reign has had to fight his way onto the roster - Moss, Boyd and Giordano, though stand-outs on the farm, required a series of fortunate circumstances, from veteran incompetence to injury, to get a spot on the club. Hell, after making the team out of camp, out-playing a couple of vets during the season and proving himself fairly capable during a difficult play-off series, Mark Giordano was still served a contract marked by a "two-way" clause!
Now, perhaps Sutter "learned" something from that experience and is loathe to potentially lose a guy he likes to Europe. I think, perhaps, that is the *only* way to explain this signing. The contract still doesn't make much sense in my mind because a.) Prust is eminently replaceable as a player and b.) Sutter went out and signed a similar guy (Roy) just a few weeks later anyways! I mean, if you think enough of a kid to give him the one-way, then why not give him a chance to prove himself on the ice before making him redundant! If the Flames were struggling to make the cap floor like the LA Kings of the world, I'd understand, but...
Sigh.
As for the player himself, while I think he wouldn't be a huge difference maker either way, I do kind of like what he potentially could be: a disruptive pest in the Ott/Avery/Burrows/Carcillo mold. When it comes to the PIM guys, I prefer pests over goons because they can typically skate, can disrupt the other team by getting them "off their game" and tend to draw as many - or more - penalties than they take. While Prust isn't a lumbering meathead, he's at least game enough to back-up any of his shenanigans. Here he is taking on Thrashers giant Boris Valabik, for example:
Ballsy. With Roy (Primeau, Glencross, Boyd, Nilson and Nystrom) in town who knows if the kid will even get a chance to prove he can do it in the big leagues though. Despite his baffling one-way contract.
