I posited yesterday that the Flames have 2 glaring holes in the roster, at least one of which will need to be filled if the team is expected to be reasonably competitive next season. Let's take a closer look to see which is the more pressing concern
Deficiency the first:
Cammalleri-Langkow-Iginla
________ -Lombardi-_________ (Boyd? Bourque? Moss?)
Bourque-Conroy-Moss
Glencross-Primeau-Prust/Nystrom
Deficiency the second:
Regehr-Sarich
Phaneuf-_______
Giordano-Aucoin
Vandermeer
Clearly deficiency the first is the bigger concern. None of the potential 2nd liners were top 6 forwards last season. I think Lombardi is poised to make the leap, but he's still not the kind of player that will drive results with the likes of Moss, 22 year-old Dustin Boyd or Bourque as his wingers. I like the idea of reserving one of the top 6 spots for a kid with potential (Boyd?), but I fear the effect of a two-kid experiment (we all know how that went last year), even if Keenan decides to drop Langkow down from Jarome's line to anchor the secondary scoring trio.
On the back-end the lack of another top 4 d-man is probably manageable. All 7 players are NHL caliber defensemen and at least two of them are very, very good players capable of carrying a duo. Hell, Dion dragged Eriksson around all season last year - pretty much any of the alternatives will likely be an improvement.
Another top-6 forward is therefore the priority. Remaining possibilties:
- Demitra
- Nagy
- Havlat (trade)
- Gagne (trade)
- Williams
- Shanahan
- Bertuzzi
- Vasicek
- Federov
- Vyborny
- Morrison
- Selanne
(edited to add Demitra)
Some of these guys are centers, some would have to be traded for, some probably won't be available and some aren't even really top-6 forwards anymore. And some are reprehensible scumbags. It's not a list of ideals but it's what's left to work with.
Thoughts?
