CraigsList
In Conroy We Trust
^ Pretty much the title. With voting our prospect pool, I started thinking about what players we tend to underrate. I have a top 3 for both roster and prospect players:
Roster Players
1) Ladislav Smid - Huge, huge pick up. Plays a great defensive game and is a warrior. Arguably one of the best #5 defenseman out there. The Oilers are definitely missing him (but I don't think he misses them
).
2) Kris Russell - Puts up points and blocks shots like no other. He had a better blocks per game ratio than Chris Butler (2.96 BPG > Butler's 2.56 BPG). Definitely worth the 5th rounder the Flames offered up for him. Contributing with a .43 PPG is damn good as a defenseman. Solid #4 defenseman in my eyes.
3) Matt Stajan - We always get caught up with talking about centers Backlund and Monahan and tend to forgot about Matt. His son died, we all expected him to not come back to play until next year, but what did he do? He came to practice two weeks later (or whatever the duration was, someone correct me if I am wrong). I think he is the best 3rd line center we could have, I think he has the best FO%, and contributes as a .5PPG player.
Prospects
1) Bill Arnold - Just because he played with Johnny G. for quite a bit of his college career, does not mean he needs to rely on our best prospect. While we all kept a good eye on Johnny in his first NHL game, I made sure to keep a close eye on Arnold and he looked solid as well. He too only needed a couple of shifts to get in to the game. If you put him with quality players, he will be a quality player as well (Klimchuk in training camp). Excited to see how he does with the Baby Flames getting middle 6 minutes.
2) Kenny Agostino - Once he finished his year in Yale, the Flames suffered through some injuries, and this kid had to step in. And for the most part, he looked pretty comfortable and solid. Pretty stoked he got a goal in the NHL, and hope that he too does well with the Baby Flames with middle 6 minutes.
3) Morgan Klimchuk - Both Morgan and Kenny tend to be shadowed with the emergence of Johnny and of course our other awesome prospect in Baertschi. Klimchuk tends to be an "under-the-radar" kind of prospect because of how deep our LW prospects are. He's got a great shot, had a great camp, I think he'll be tearing it up in another year of juniors. Exciting things from this kid.
Just starting another thread so we can pass by time as the days go by prior to preseason. I swear this has been one of the longest offseasons ever because of how excited I am to see how our team does next year with a solid 1st year of rebuilding.
Any other roster players/prospects that I am missing? Reasoning why you think they're underrated?
Roster Players
1) Ladislav Smid - Huge, huge pick up. Plays a great defensive game and is a warrior. Arguably one of the best #5 defenseman out there. The Oilers are definitely missing him (but I don't think he misses them
). 2) Kris Russell - Puts up points and blocks shots like no other. He had a better blocks per game ratio than Chris Butler (2.96 BPG > Butler's 2.56 BPG). Definitely worth the 5th rounder the Flames offered up for him. Contributing with a .43 PPG is damn good as a defenseman. Solid #4 defenseman in my eyes.
3) Matt Stajan - We always get caught up with talking about centers Backlund and Monahan and tend to forgot about Matt. His son died, we all expected him to not come back to play until next year, but what did he do? He came to practice two weeks later (or whatever the duration was, someone correct me if I am wrong). I think he is the best 3rd line center we could have, I think he has the best FO%, and contributes as a .5PPG player.
Prospects
1) Bill Arnold - Just because he played with Johnny G. for quite a bit of his college career, does not mean he needs to rely on our best prospect. While we all kept a good eye on Johnny in his first NHL game, I made sure to keep a close eye on Arnold and he looked solid as well. He too only needed a couple of shifts to get in to the game. If you put him with quality players, he will be a quality player as well (Klimchuk in training camp). Excited to see how he does with the Baby Flames getting middle 6 minutes.
2) Kenny Agostino - Once he finished his year in Yale, the Flames suffered through some injuries, and this kid had to step in. And for the most part, he looked pretty comfortable and solid. Pretty stoked he got a goal in the NHL, and hope that he too does well with the Baby Flames with middle 6 minutes.
3) Morgan Klimchuk - Both Morgan and Kenny tend to be shadowed with the emergence of Johnny and of course our other awesome prospect in Baertschi. Klimchuk tends to be an "under-the-radar" kind of prospect because of how deep our LW prospects are. He's got a great shot, had a great camp, I think he'll be tearing it up in another year of juniors. Exciting things from this kid.
Just starting another thread so we can pass by time as the days go by prior to preseason. I swear this has been one of the longest offseasons ever because of how excited I am to see how our team does next year with a solid 1st year of rebuilding.
Any other roster players/prospects that I am missing? Reasoning why you think they're underrated?
exactly.
