Official Prospects Draft Forum

Chouinard is vastly under rated. He shot 60 goals one year for Washington. I think 136 points. I'm old enough to have collected a Bobby Orr card from the pack, but not really old enough to remember him play. The first season I truly fell in love with the game, I was monsterously disappointed that they gave the Calder to Plett. It was a no-brainer that Don Murdoch of the Rangers should win. 30 goals & 57 points. Plett only had goals... 33 or 38. I have a zillion hockey cards including the Lysiak, Vail, Bouchard bunch up until about 82. Then I miss 10 years and got picking some up every year since then. Red's got a huge mess of them in his room somewhere. Probably all beat to shit. Many of the good ones were stolen. I had them in hard covers, so they were easy to lift. All the good cards from the Gretzky rookie set. Best card we have right now got screwed over royally there with Rad's defecting to the KHL. There are two runs of the card. One run has 300 or 400 pieces. Then there's the gold version. It has 30 pieces. We've got a gold one. Rookie, jersey, autograph, numbered.... every element that you could have in a card... except it needs to be of a Hall of Famer. Oh, yeah, Flames... Lanny has the goal record! All-in-all, you've been spoiled since they arrived in town. Only a few years you couldn't hope they'd take a run at it. They really need to pull a Philly and get some young talent to go with Dion in regards to the long term window. Should be a good ride for another five years. I thought there teams after the Cup Final year, were actually better. I'm starting to worry about the blueline a bit. For a few years the blueline was massively impressive. They've done a good job trying to re-jig it this year. Cammy for Tanguay was good. I don't mind them giving Big Bert a crack at refinding himself either. A #1 centre has been an elusive commodity for a while. Some good character guys in this set too. Kipper needs to refind his big form... and you can dream some more of the 'Red Mile'!

Hey guys, you forgot about the best Flames trade ... EVER! Doug Gilmour for Gary Leeman. Wasn't that a gem?

Dougy Riseborough seems like he has a bit more brains these days in Minny, but I'd still WAY rather have Darryl Sutter. To be honest, I think the Flames are right up there with any of the league's top tier management. They've been able to hang on to all the big name players for below market value - because the marquee players want to play there. The only problem is they just haven't been able to draft as well as Detroit.

As for Red Mile stories: my girlfriend at the time lived five blocks from 17th Ave during the 2004 cup run. She's not a hockey fan per se, but did she ever become one during that beauty of a cup drive. How could you not? The city was on fire. We must have gone down to watch 2-3 games in pubs along the Red Mile. It was nuts....

That was the best Stanley Cup final I can remember in years - fast paced, evenly matched, not bogged down with pathetic defense. And I still hold: the Flames deserved to win that one. They outplayed the lightning, but the lightning got the bounces when they needed them in the final two games.

About players: The flames have had trouble finding centres, yes, but I'm betting they'll have one in Backlund. Have you seen this guy play? He is astonishing. He is an absolute wizard. I think he'll be hitting 90-95 points during his prime, and he'll be good for 60-75 points within three years. That's my bet anyways. It'll be interesting to see if he and Iginla play tother and whether or not they find some chemistry. Iggy still has a lot of good years remaining, so they could conceivably for a great 1-2 punch.

Anyway, that's it for dreaming boys. Glad to share some memories.

Cheers,
Matt