That would be a huge mistake. Lindholm is easily the best center on the team. No idea how you came up with the idea that Coleman is a weak link

Well Lindholm can stay at Centre and Kadri can move to wing. Either way the team will still be better. Colemans the weakest link cause he had 33 pts in 81 games, 16 goals. Hanafins good but Podkolzin alone could be worth a lot more in 1-2 years. This trade favours Calgary heavily.

That's just a bad take on Coleman, he drastically underperformed offensively last year but was elite defensively. It's very likely that he will have a rebound in production

Here's his graph from last season compared to the previous 3

Are you saying he's a better forward than Toffoli and Mangiapane?

No I'm saying he's far from a liability or a weak link. He's a very reliable forward

What I said was that he is the weakest link between Mangiapane, Toffoli and him. I didn't say he was a liability. Calgarys current top 6 caliber players are Hub, Kadri, Linholm, Mangiapane, Backlund, Toffoli, Coleman. If you were to replace one of those players with a better one, Coleman would be the odd one out, is what Im saying. CGYs forward group is really good but if they were going to improve on anything it would be the forwards. Since they lost two elite wingers and got one back.

What I said was that he is the weakest link between Mangiapane, Toffoli and him. I didn't say he was a liability. Calgarys current top 6 caliber players are Hub, Kadri, Linholm, Mangiapane, Backlund, Toffoli, Coleman. If you were to replace one of those players with a better one, Coleman would be the odd one out, is what Im saying. CGYs forward group is really good but if they were going to improve on anything it would be the forwards. Since they lost two elite wingers and got one back.

While I understand what you are saying I don't entirely agree. Calgary has some very good prospects that could make the line up. Pelletier is very promising and Zary has been the Flames best player at these young stars games. Dube can also certainly jump into a top 6 role. Not to mention Milano on the PTO

Personally I don't see any chance of Coleman being separated from Backlund, they have far too much chemistry. I do think Calgary should consider adding someone to the top 6 before the playoffs but certainly not at the cost of your 1st pair top 25 defenseman. Futures can be traded in that scenario instead

Agree that Coleman has great chemistry with Backlund and is one of the most defensively responsible forwards in the league, but you should never expect too much offense out of him

I expect him to be around a ~45 point shutdown winger

Lmao, after he only had 33 points in 81 games this past season? Dude, he doesn't have anymore offense in him than what we've already seen. Thank god I didn't have any drink on hand with me just now or I might have accidentally spilled it

What? Did you even look at the above graph? He clearly had a down year offensively

Considering that Coleman plays such a physical type of game that's known to not age very well, I don't think it's realistic at all to assume that he will improve offensively from this point onward in his career

And considering most players have a down year after a new big contract it's pretty normal for them to bounce back. Then factor in both Backlund and him shooting at 5.9% and 7.5% last year compared to their usual and league average ~10% for their TOI he should certainly have an uptick in production. On tip of that he had 5 points in 12 playoff games this year (6 points if you count the one that got called off vs the Oilers). He was easily one of Calgary's most effective forwards cone crunch time

Backlund and Coleman's primary job is to shut down other team's top competition, not score goals. Why should we believe that their shooting percentages will go up? Coleman is also a renown playoff performer too I might add.

Regardless of their primary role they both under produced last season relative to their average. They should both hypotheticaly have an increase in production this season based on statistics

Betting on a couple of thirty something year olds on having individual bounce backs after their respective team greatly exceeded expectations this past season? Something doesn't add up. Maybe they aren't actually poised to bounce back because their play is due for regression going forward

I don't think you realize how many Flames actually under performed last year simply by tunnel visioning on the results from that first line being so elite. Outside the first line, Mangiapane and the defense were the only players that actually "exceeded expectations. Literally everyone else showed expected to below expected results production wise. Even the players like Jarnkrok who were brought in really didn't do anything.

Here's an example that as a Canucks fan you might be able to understand. OEL only put up 29 points last year in 79 games. Thats a 0.367ppg. In the 19/20 and 20/21 seasons he put up a 37 and 43 point pace respectively. Before the shortened seasons he was pretty much a lock for 40-45 points a year. Do you think he will bounce back to that range this season or at least bounce back at all?

As a matter of fact, I do. OEL was heavily restricted offensively because he was tasked with playing a defensive role alongside Tyler Myers. This season, OEL won't be playing with Myers, so that will free him up offensively more. The difference between Backlund + Coleman and OEL is that OEL's game is more geared towards an offensive game, where as Backlund and Coleman's strengths are more geared toward defense. That said, unless Backlund and Coleman are put in a more offensively opportunistic position, I don't see either of their offensive numbers taking a step up.

A lot of bias assumptions here IMO. First off, as of right now Vancouver doesn't exactly have RD depth to guarantee separating him from Myers or putting him in a more offensive role. Also in away games (half the season) the opponent gets to line match so Backlund's line while it will be more of a shutdown role will still be matched vs lower QoC in those games. I think you really underestimate the offense that they generate too just because they are strong defensively.

Anyways I think discussing this any further is pointless as only time will tell and we both seem adamant on our opinions

Their strong defensive game is the reason they're able to generate any notable amount of offense at all. That's how it is with all of the best checking lines in the league

Vancouver can put Myers with Travis Dermott or one of their right-handed defenseman in Luke Schenn or Tucker Poolman. Obviously that's not an easy way to live, but Myers has shown he can hold his own in big minutes. He won't excel, but he won't be consistent a liability either