Some food for thought for everyone saying the Flames need to get younger:
The 5 teams ahead of Calgary in terms of age, New Jersey, Detroit, Florida, Boston and Pittsburgh, will all be making the playoffs this season.
The 4 teams with the youngest squads, Colorado, Toronto, Buffalo, and Columbus, most likely will not be making the playoffs this season. Toronto and Columbus definitely won't.
There is a huge difference between getting younger and getting better.
Yes Kipper and Iginla are old. However, they define the Calgary Flames. Kipper has a .920 save percentage, better than most goalies in the league (including Carey Price and Ryan Miller).
Iginla once again scored 30 goals this year, a feat he has accomplished every year since 2000-2001. I've seen trades that want to trade him for a first and a mediocre prospect/roster player. Is that first rounder supposed to replace the 30+ goals every season?
With youth comes creativity. Something this team DOES NOT have. Everyone knows the Iggy - pull up at the line, pump fake, go wide, turn back to defender and try to back into the slot. Hey Iggy, that stopped working in 06.
There's a reason we thrived with Baertschi. He's young, excited and full of creativity. We need to not only get younger, we need to get better!! More talent. But more importantly, the youth brings the excitement and the willingness to try new things. Our team is 100% full of one-trick ponies.
With youth comes creativity. Something this team DOES NOT have. Everyone knows the Iggy - pull up at the line, pump fake, go wide, turn back to defender and try to back into the slot. Hey Iggy, that stopped working in 06.
There's a reason we thrived with Baertschi. He's young, excited and full of creativity. We need to not only get younger, we need to get better!! More talent. But more importantly, the youth brings the excitement and the willingness to try new things. Our team is 100% full of one-trick ponies.
Younger isn't always more creative IMO. Some of the most creative shooters in the shootout are guys like Datsuk, St. Louis, and Selanne. And when you say that Iggy has been figured out, the first thing I wonder is how he's able to hit 30 goals every year?
Furthermore, what Baerstchi were you watching? He played simple hard nosed hockey and kept his legs moving. It wasn't like he was pulling 360s and keeping the puck on a string. He's a goal scorer, like Iggy, that knows where to go to get open looks and to get a nasty goal.
I think you're just extrapolating the lack of creativity that we've seen from the shoot out into the first 60 mins.
(Orpik and Martin are both 31, but they haven't been very good this season)
So with the exception of Detroit, all of the teams have younger, deeper and better cores. The teams you listed have a couple players that are older that jack up the average, but for the most part, the important players are all younger.
Furthermore, what Baerstchi were you watching? He played simple hard nosed hockey and kept his legs moving. It wasn't like he was pulling 360s and keeping the puck on a string. He's a goal scorer, like Iggy, that knows where to go to get open looks and to get a nasty goal.
Just for the record, Baerstchi is more of a playmaker actually. I know we didn't get to see it much in his stint up, but thats because he didn't really have the linemates to use those skills. In Junior, all he does all day long is set up easy goals for Rattie. I would love for the Flames to try and draft a pure goal scorer to go with Sven.
The "needs to get younger" refrain comes from the fact that it's difficult/impossible to get excellent peak players without giving up a huge amount of assets. The best way to properly rebuild the core of a team is via the draft or unproven prospects, which means that the team has to get younger in order to get better.
Calgary cannot get better without getting a new core, as theirs is older and regressing.
You need to compare the ages of a team's core players. Once your a non-plasyoff team with an aging core which is regressing, you need to rebuild. This is especially true when that team has a prospect pool which is ranked in the bottom of the league.
Bingo. This is why "reloading" and "retooling" just won't cut it. The Flames need a new beginning and that means a tear down rebuild.
That doesn't mean they don't need veterans to help integrate new players and keep things interesting. At the worst part of their 80's rebuild the Wings still signed guys like Brad Park to help them through. The older players will come in handy.
But the need to build around a new core of young players is obviously there. The question now is whether or not ownership and management are up to the task. If they are then great. If not - boy, it's gonna be a long stretch.
