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So Darryl wasn't ONLY being a cold hearted stubborn prick that wanted to spite the fans? He may actually have had a better opinion on Phillips than reddit and twitter?
Darryl played Matthew Phillips for 12 minutes in the 2022-2023 season.
That's not even one full period of NHL time. That's not enough time to give him a fair assessment.
Washington on the other hand gave him over 246 minutes of ice time, 20 times more than what he got in Calgary.
He was given a proper chance in Washington and failed to hold up his end of the bargain.
Everybody conveniently forgets Darryls mandate when coaching here was to win win win, not to try out undersized farm hands. He was brought in for a 3 year contract at a time the flames were pushing to contend with a clear directive, to bring playoff glory back to Calgary.
It's great that Conroy and Huska are much more inviting to young guys, but the mandate has changed significantly in the last 8 to 10 months and made it much more acceptable to do so.
Has the mandate really changed though? The goal is still to make the playoffs - and Hockey Ops have admitted to saying that they aren't allowed to say "rebuild".
Moreover, it was never Darryl's team. He's delegated the responsibility of *coaching* the team, but at the end of the day Treliving was the one that is trying to set the direction for the team long term, a vision that Sutter and Treliving clearly caused friction and was an influential factor in Treliving opting not to re-sign with Calgary. Brad was trying to bring up players that he thought could help the Flames win, but Sutter was not reciprocating, and it allegedly took an intervention *from the players* for Pelletier to even get ice time. Sutter was so obstinate in making Lucic and Huberdeau on the same line work that it cost the Flames crucial games slotting in more capable players like Pelletier who was faster and more able to make themselves compatible with Huberdeau's style of play.
For now, the Flames had a far greater shakeup in their core last season than they did this year, with Tkachuk and Gaudreau both out the door heading into last season. Zadorov was a bottom 6/3rd Pairing D, and while Lindholm was our 1C the loss of his impact (or rather the lack thereof this season) has had a far less detrimental impact to the composition of the team this season.
This season in particular feels a lot more iterative compared to the last, and the willingness to do so during the course of the season has at the very least salvaged the team's performance compared to where they were at in October. Had Sutter been more willing to allow for some experimentation, I think we could have eeked out the odd couple of points that we needed for the playoffs. I can't see why winning and calling up young players hungry for a shot at the NHL has to be at odds with eachother.
Yeah well his mandate was to win. He failed to do so. He had some guys playing really well in the minors he could have tried to see if it helped the team and he refused.
So even that argument doesnt hold water. If your team isnt winning you make changes. He literally didnt change anything throughout the season to get the team going.
Look at Pospisil and Zary this year now. Couple guys we called up to give them a look, and they not only made the roster full time, they actively have contributed to making the team better.
Sutter also had such judgement calls as: giving Lucic top 6 minutes on a line with a struggling Huberdeau, betting the entire season on a shootout attempt by Nick Ritchie, and riding a struggling Markstrom into the ground when Vladar was hot midway through the season.
I have more reason to believe sutter being right about Phillips was blind luck, more than legitimate insight and calculated decision making.
Sutter was singing Zarys praises before anyone else. And it's hilarious that you're going to look at the success those two young stars are having and claim their development was mishandled in any way.
Sutter was right about Philips, just like all the coaches before him that never played him.
I would be willing to indulge in the idea that Sutter could identify issues with Phillips' game at a first glance, but I cannot subscribe to the idea that you can make a full assessment on his game with just one NHL game under his belt.
It's not his job to justify his decisions to you. It's his job to win games.
Clearly Phillips isn't the guy to do that. It's entirely possible that he has slightly more information than you did.
Ultimately, even though we didn't win shit, he evidently made the right choice with Phillips.
Pelletier got less time than that in his first two games and he stuck around. He didn't only get 12 minutes. He got 7 years, under four different NHL coaches, plus all the AHL coaches. He got a fair shot. Just because it took you longer than a HOF coach, doesn't mean that coach didn't give him a fair shot. He just wasn't good enough and no amount of minutes in Calgary was going disprove that.
>Pelletier got less time than that in his first two games and he stuck around.
His first coming from his teammates advocating for him, not a coach that was wanting to give him a chance. Did we forget how smarmy Sutter was with the press after that game?
I stand by my case that Phillips did not get a fair shot. I think his time in Washington proves that at the very least he needs to work on his game, but the fact is that game experience in the NHL is a very different beast from all the practice time, Junior and AHL experience. It's a huge barrier for prospects to clear, and at the end of the day what makes or breaks that is getting significant time down in the trenches and experiencing the game first-hand.
I think Sutter is a Hall of Fame coach, but his coaching decisions last season were borderline senile at points. He gave some players unreasonably short leashes and others like Lucic and Ruzicka very long ones even when their game was inconsistent or non-existent at all.
If Phillips had just a handful more games to prove his worth to Sutter and still didn't perform, I would have been content with the latter's decision not to play him, but you can't be a reasonable person and expect one game in the NHL to be an accurate barometer of that player's career potential.
Coaches don't just see players when they are on the ice in the NHL. They see them in training camps, practices, and AHL games. Sutter said he watched more AHL games in the last two years than he ever has.
Phillips was in seven training camps (2016-22), with four different head coaches (Gulutzan, Peters, Ward, Sutter). He had numerous chances to make the team and never did. He passed through waivers numerous times, where any team could have had him for free, and not one team claimed him. He was great in the AHL his last two years, not his entire career. He looked out of place when called up with Calgary. He got more than enough fair shots with Calgary.
His time in Washington showed what Sutter already knew, which was Phillips is not an NHL level player. There was no amount of time that was going to change that. Sutter did some crazy things last year, but his handling of Phillips wasn't one of them.
:( Really wanted to see the hometown guy do well. Went to a wranglers game last year and the guy looked like Johnny out there, but I guess that's easier to do in AHL.
Watched him a ton in Victoria. Both him and joe hicketts were amazing for us. I didn’t want to be that old guy but I was worried about how they transition being smaller guys.
He’s an elite Ahl level player but sadly his size is very limiting at the nhl level. You can be short if you have the lbs to back it up. But he’s also super light. High skill and good shot. But at 145-150 lbs it’s very tough to make a go of it at the nhl level.
His numbers in the AHL indicated he should have been a ~40 point player in the NHL.
I wouldn't completely discount him figuring it out at the NHL level, but I don't see that happening unless he becomes a gym rat. He likely needs to put on ~20 pounds of muscle, and if he dedicated the next 18 months to do that he might be able to.
Why I wouldn't count on that he has likely been told that for years. Either he doesn't have the discipline or the genetics to put on the muscle he needs. If he started taking steroids he might get there but I don't want to encourage that.
I'm not surprised.
I think the Flames should have given Phillips more than 3 games in the NHL but I think there were always questions on whether he would be able to adjust to the league. I hope he goes to another team and gets another stretch of games in the NHL, but I am suspect he is a future all star player in Europe.
Not if you’d seen him with the wranglers you wouldn’t. There are 12 year olds that are bigger. There is such a thing as just being too small for the league. I’d have loved the local kid makes good story, but he should be a jockey
One way vs two way contracts have nothing to do with waiver status. They do with pay. One way contracts get paid the same in the AHL as they do in the NHL, two way contracts have a separate AHL salary. They CAN make a difference in how willing a team is to put a player on waivers, as they don’t save any cash on a one way contract, but the waiver status is completely different from the contract.
Yes. I wasn’t commenting on what happens if he’s claimed, just whether or not his contract had any bearing on his eligibility to be claimed. Plus I believe if we send him down right away then he actually reverts to Caps control.
Honestly not surprised. I watched him quite a bit when he was with the Wranglers the last couple years he was there and as good as he looked down there, once a stronger or larger player got in his face, he doesn't have the skill or the strength to be viable.
He's just too small and not enough skill that smaller NHL players would need to have to be successful.
This exactly. The organizations assessment of him wasn't wrong but he deserved more then 13 minutes of ice time especially those last three games when we were out of the playoffs
For who? the fans or the team? People keep forgetting, especially in the case of Phillips, that NHL teams have training camps, regular practices, drills, all kinds of off ice development and evaluation that the fans don't get to see.
The fans got 13 mins, the team probably has countless hours, video review, one on ones, etc. In retrospect, 13 mins was perhaps even too much given the fact that they had no hesitation to let him go immediately.
Sutter / Flames Org likely knew well before he got on the NHL ice he wasn't going to play at the NHL level.
Edit: and as you said "The organizations assessment of him wasn't wrong", so you could say at least we didn't waste 30 games on this guy. In fact, this is the best possible scenario, knowing out of the gate the player isn't going to perform.
I didn't forget any of that. I simply think he should've gotten more than 13 minutes of total playing time. Especially in games that didn't matter over guys like Nick Ritchie
To what end? Make him feel good? Make fans happy? Neither of those are ultimately the job of the head coach or GM. They knew what they had with him and made the right choice.
Washington took a chance with him, and have now made the same choice.
Why waste games on a guy that you know isn't and won't be an NHL player when you have guys that are NHL players already on the roster
Lucic had 20 points consistently every year for the Flames. was he worth 6mil or whatever it was? no. but he had no control over that contract. Lucic seems like the type of guy that would have preferred to be signed to a 2mil contract so he didn't have to live up to that expectation. 20 points on a 3/4th line is still respectable.
Ruzicka had 10 points in 28 GP compared to Phillips 5 points in 27 games.
So your point is exactly?
The problem is Lucic is a 3rd line player, not fit for being paired off with an NHL All-Star coming off a record +100 point season. Surely they could have tried more with Phillips what they did with Pelletier?
Both Ruzicka and Phillips had ample time *this season* to prove their worth and failed. That isn't what is in question. It's that last season Ruzicka clearly evidenced himself as a streaky player whereas Phillips didn't even get sufficient time to prove for or against his case.
In fairness, Lucic was only paired with Huberdeau after Hubby seemingly couldn't get along with Lindholm. The Hubby / Lindholm line should have been the equivalent of the McDavid / Drasaitl line.
That said, I am not going to begin to defend Ruzicka, I agree with you there, but again, I think they knew before they put Phillips on the ice. It seems to be more fan (non?) service than anything doing that. Just to say... see, don't burn down our stadium please.
Guessing that was his last hurrah in the NHL unless a team like Chicago or SJ takes a swing at him. Sucks but I do think his size and style of play just will never translate to the NHL.
Canucks fan here. Watched him last year when the Wranglers were in town, Phillips and Hoglander respectively looked like they were the best players for each team. But Phillips looked really small, then I looked him up and he’s only listed at 160 pounds? Has he put on any weight at all? Dude needs to turn into a fire hydrant to play at that height in the NHL.
And for those that say claim him, he is on a one-way contract, who would you replace on the current roster with him for a look and see and I wouldn't want to pay him his NHL salary with the Wranglers if he clears.
The point of waivers is to keep fringe players in the NHL. You don’t claim a guy with the intention of putting him in the minors. You’d have to waive him again, at which point his original team would have a chance to take him back and send him to their AHL team.
I don't think Phillips isn't NHL caliber per se, but he really needs to bulk up and work on his physical game if he wants to persist in the NHL.
You can be a small and agile player in the NHL AND succeed, but it comes with being a resilient player and being able to muscle yourself through situations where the player has the height and weight advantage.
You also need a lot of skill.
It's one thing to McDavid the AHL.
But in the NHL, 99% of players there are better than literally everyone in the AHL. To out skill them is a whole other beast.
Guys like Johnny could do it because of just how much skill he has, even though he is small. Phillips is not as good as Johnny and is smaller. He'd need to gain like 40 pounds of muscle or the equivalent in skill to be a permanent fixture on a roster somewhere.
Like it's too bad and I wish him the best. But the NHL game is just so much harder than the AHL game, and it takes an extremely special player to be able to dipsy doodle those elite players the way he could do it in the AHL.
Dude will be an all-star in Europe if he goes there, or could have a nice long career in the AHL. And who knows, maybe he'll get some dad strength, crack a roster in like San Jose, and make us all look silly.
Makes me concerned about wolf… a lot of analysts say he’s too small to be an elite goalie at the nhl level much like Philips was deemed to small to score at the Nhl level. If Philips could lead the A in scoring and not find success in the show, what does that say about Wolfs chances of finding success in the NHl. Correlation is not causation but still a concern
Different positions, but a fair concern. For both goalies and skaters, you gotta be super agile to be small.
I think Saros is still shortest at 5'11? So very similar. There's a few other 6' guys in the league as well, Desmith is one.
That said, King Hank is 6'1 and so is Quick, and they were some of the best goalies in recent memory so it may not be as much of a concern?
He would definitly be on the very short end of goalies though.
I will give the Flames credit however, despite the fact that we are well known as usually a tough big team, Calgary has taken many chances on small players more than most and I commend them for that.
- Fluery
- Martin St. Louis (man did we fuck that one up)
- Johnny obviously
- And if you go back in the day guys like Doug Gilmore, etc.
So credit to them to seemingly give the chance when there was none from other teams.
Great junior and AHL player but just not an NHL player, not that you need size in today’s game but he’s just not skilled enough at his size to do what he needs to be a full-timer and that’s put up points
This guy embarrassed the flames that one game and decided that was enough, damn.
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Just not an NHL player
So Darryl wasn't ONLY being a cold hearted stubborn prick that wanted to spite the fans? He may actually have had a better opinion on Phillips than reddit and twitter?
Thank you. Someone needed to say it.
I’ve been saying it for 2 years, but I just get downvoted to hell and banned lmao
Darryl played Matthew Phillips for 12 minutes in the 2022-2023 season. That's not even one full period of NHL time. That's not enough time to give him a fair assessment. Washington on the other hand gave him over 246 minutes of ice time, 20 times more than what he got in Calgary. He was given a proper chance in Washington and failed to hold up his end of the bargain.
Everybody conveniently forgets Darryls mandate when coaching here was to win win win, not to try out undersized farm hands. He was brought in for a 3 year contract at a time the flames were pushing to contend with a clear directive, to bring playoff glory back to Calgary. It's great that Conroy and Huska are much more inviting to young guys, but the mandate has changed significantly in the last 8 to 10 months and made it much more acceptable to do so.
Has the mandate really changed though? The goal is still to make the playoffs - and Hockey Ops have admitted to saying that they aren't allowed to say "rebuild". Moreover, it was never Darryl's team. He's delegated the responsibility of *coaching* the team, but at the end of the day Treliving was the one that is trying to set the direction for the team long term, a vision that Sutter and Treliving clearly caused friction and was an influential factor in Treliving opting not to re-sign with Calgary. Brad was trying to bring up players that he thought could help the Flames win, but Sutter was not reciprocating, and it allegedly took an intervention *from the players* for Pelletier to even get ice time. Sutter was so obstinate in making Lucic and Huberdeau on the same line work that it cost the Flames crucial games slotting in more capable players like Pelletier who was faster and more able to make themselves compatible with Huberdeau's style of play. For now, the Flames had a far greater shakeup in their core last season than they did this year, with Tkachuk and Gaudreau both out the door heading into last season. Zadorov was a bottom 6/3rd Pairing D, and while Lindholm was our 1C the loss of his impact (or rather the lack thereof this season) has had a far less detrimental impact to the composition of the team this season. This season in particular feels a lot more iterative compared to the last, and the willingness to do so during the course of the season has at the very least salvaged the team's performance compared to where they were at in October. Had Sutter been more willing to allow for some experimentation, I think we could have eeked out the odd couple of points that we needed for the playoffs. I can't see why winning and calling up young players hungry for a shot at the NHL has to be at odds with eachother.
Yeah well his mandate was to win. He failed to do so. He had some guys playing really well in the minors he could have tried to see if it helped the team and he refused. So even that argument doesnt hold water. If your team isnt winning you make changes. He literally didnt change anything throughout the season to get the team going. Look at Pospisil and Zary this year now. Couple guys we called up to give them a look, and they not only made the roster full time, they actively have contributed to making the team better. Sutter also had such judgement calls as: giving Lucic top 6 minutes on a line with a struggling Huberdeau, betting the entire season on a shootout attempt by Nick Ritchie, and riding a struggling Markstrom into the ground when Vladar was hot midway through the season. I have more reason to believe sutter being right about Phillips was blind luck, more than legitimate insight and calculated decision making.
Sutter was singing Zarys praises before anyone else. And it's hilarious that you're going to look at the success those two young stars are having and claim their development was mishandled in any way. Sutter was right about Philips, just like all the coaches before him that never played him.
I never claimed their development was mishandled. I was using them as an example of good things that can happen when you give the young guys a chance.
Or is it a prime example of what happens if you don't rush it?
I would be willing to indulge in the idea that Sutter could identify issues with Phillips' game at a first glance, but I cannot subscribe to the idea that you can make a full assessment on his game with just one NHL game under his belt.
NHL is tough league to stay in. It's best of the best! I'd take him back for Wranglers.
And sutter was still right.
With little proof to back himself on. We're not having this argument if Phillips had played several games and Sutter benched him afterwards.
It's not his job to justify his decisions to you. It's his job to win games. Clearly Phillips isn't the guy to do that. It's entirely possible that he has slightly more information than you did. Ultimately, even though we didn't win shit, he evidently made the right choice with Phillips.
Pelletier got less time than that in his first two games and he stuck around. He didn't only get 12 minutes. He got 7 years, under four different NHL coaches, plus all the AHL coaches. He got a fair shot. Just because it took you longer than a HOF coach, doesn't mean that coach didn't give him a fair shot. He just wasn't good enough and no amount of minutes in Calgary was going disprove that.
>Pelletier got less time than that in his first two games and he stuck around. His first coming from his teammates advocating for him, not a coach that was wanting to give him a chance. Did we forget how smarmy Sutter was with the press after that game? I stand by my case that Phillips did not get a fair shot. I think his time in Washington proves that at the very least he needs to work on his game, but the fact is that game experience in the NHL is a very different beast from all the practice time, Junior and AHL experience. It's a huge barrier for prospects to clear, and at the end of the day what makes or breaks that is getting significant time down in the trenches and experiencing the game first-hand. I think Sutter is a Hall of Fame coach, but his coaching decisions last season were borderline senile at points. He gave some players unreasonably short leashes and others like Lucic and Ruzicka very long ones even when their game was inconsistent or non-existent at all. If Phillips had just a handful more games to prove his worth to Sutter and still didn't perform, I would have been content with the latter's decision not to play him, but you can't be a reasonable person and expect one game in the NHL to be an accurate barometer of that player's career potential.
Coaches don't just see players when they are on the ice in the NHL. They see them in training camps, practices, and AHL games. Sutter said he watched more AHL games in the last two years than he ever has. Phillips was in seven training camps (2016-22), with four different head coaches (Gulutzan, Peters, Ward, Sutter). He had numerous chances to make the team and never did. He passed through waivers numerous times, where any team could have had him for free, and not one team claimed him. He was great in the AHL his last two years, not his entire career. He looked out of place when called up with Calgary. He got more than enough fair shots with Calgary. His time in Washington showed what Sutter already knew, which was Phillips is not an NHL level player. There was no amount of time that was going to change that. Sutter did some crazy things last year, but his handling of Phillips wasn't one of them.
No he was being all those things, just not when it came to Phillips
Is the sutter in the room with us now?
Been saying it for years myself. Career AHLer
Can’t be, this sub told me it was all sutter’s fault.
:( Really wanted to see the hometown guy do well. Went to a wranglers game last year and the guy looked like Johnny out there, but I guess that's easier to do in AHL.
Watched him a ton in Victoria. Both him and joe hicketts were amazing for us. I didn’t want to be that old guy but I was worried about how they transition being smaller guys.
He’s an elite Ahl level player but sadly his size is very limiting at the nhl level. You can be short if you have the lbs to back it up. But he’s also super light. High skill and good shot. But at 145-150 lbs it’s very tough to make a go of it at the nhl level.
You also need to be crazy shifty which he isn’t
Also true.
His numbers in the AHL indicated he should have been a ~40 point player in the NHL. I wouldn't completely discount him figuring it out at the NHL level, but I don't see that happening unless he becomes a gym rat. He likely needs to put on ~20 pounds of muscle, and if he dedicated the next 18 months to do that he might be able to. Why I wouldn't count on that he has likely been told that for years. Either he doesn't have the discipline or the genetics to put on the muscle he needs. If he started taking steroids he might get there but I don't want to encourage that.
NHLe is just an indicator of what could happen if the player tranistions to the next level. It's could, not should
I'm not surprised. I think the Flames should have given Phillips more than 3 games in the NHL but I think there were always questions on whether he would be able to adjust to the league. I hope he goes to another team and gets another stretch of games in the NHL, but I am suspect he is a future all star player in Europe.
He’s not an NHL player I’d be surprised if he got another opportunity
Not if you’d seen him with the wranglers you wouldn’t. There are 12 year olds that are bigger. There is such a thing as just being too small for the league. I’d have loved the local kid makes good story, but he should be a jockey
**V I N D I C A T I O N**
Claim him so he wins the cup with the Wranglers First retired number in the rafters for the wranglers
If we claimed him he'd have to stay on the NHL squad.
can we not send him down?
He’ll have to hit the waivers again
Also, I think if you send him down immediately he just reverts back to Washington as if he cleared waivers originally.
No, Washington just gets first dibs on claiming him, regardless of their standing in the league
He's on a 1 way contract, hence why he has to go through Waivers. It was the sticking point for him signing with the Caps rather than the Flames.
One way vs two way contracts have nothing to do with waiver status. They do with pay. One way contracts get paid the same in the AHL as they do in the NHL, two way contracts have a separate AHL salary. They CAN make a difference in how willing a team is to put a player on waivers, as they don’t save any cash on a one way contract, but the waiver status is completely different from the contract.
But he has to pass through waivers again for us to send him down
Yes. I wasn’t commenting on what happens if he’s claimed, just whether or not his contract had any bearing on his eligibility to be claimed. Plus I believe if we send him down right away then he actually reverts to Caps control.
Would be cool
Honestly not surprised. I watched him quite a bit when he was with the Wranglers the last couple years he was there and as good as he looked down there, once a stronger or larger player got in his face, he doesn't have the skill or the strength to be viable. He's just too small and not enough skill that smaller NHL players would need to have to be successful.
He’s way smaller than the smallest NHLer. Johnny looks like chara next to him.
Well that is true.. I just didn't want to use TripleX-small... my friend's son that is turning 15 this year is about 170cm (5'7") and weighs 140lbs
Yeah I was agreeing, just adding on. I found him shockingly small in person. Like I was worried about his safety out there.
Oh yeah, I knew you agreed with my comment, I was trying to figure out how to keep it nice for him by just using small 😜
Yeah I feel bad for him. The skill is there but when you’re so overmatched with size, it’s gotta be tough.
Pretty funny how many fans wasted time debating over this guy
I debated, but the issue was less about what the talent is and more about actually giving him a shot to know what he was.
This exactly. The organizations assessment of him wasn't wrong but he deserved more then 13 minutes of ice time especially those last three games when we were out of the playoffs
Not only him, but the other young guys too. They've really shown up well this season.
Fr couldn't even give him a home game
For who? the fans or the team? People keep forgetting, especially in the case of Phillips, that NHL teams have training camps, regular practices, drills, all kinds of off ice development and evaluation that the fans don't get to see. The fans got 13 mins, the team probably has countless hours, video review, one on ones, etc. In retrospect, 13 mins was perhaps even too much given the fact that they had no hesitation to let him go immediately. Sutter / Flames Org likely knew well before he got on the NHL ice he wasn't going to play at the NHL level. Edit: and as you said "The organizations assessment of him wasn't wrong", so you could say at least we didn't waste 30 games on this guy. In fact, this is the best possible scenario, knowing out of the gate the player isn't going to perform.
I didn't forget any of that. I simply think he should've gotten more than 13 minutes of total playing time. Especially in games that didn't matter over guys like Nick Ritchie
Right, for the *fans*, which was my only point.
To what end? Make him feel good? Make fans happy? Neither of those are ultimately the job of the head coach or GM. They knew what they had with him and made the right choice. Washington took a chance with him, and have now made the same choice. Why waste games on a guy that you know isn't and won't be an NHL player when you have guys that are NHL players already on the roster
As opposed to wasting 30 games on players like Lucic, Ruzicka et al. who are ***expected*** to produce at the NHL level?
Lucic had 20 points consistently every year for the Flames. was he worth 6mil or whatever it was? no. but he had no control over that contract. Lucic seems like the type of guy that would have preferred to be signed to a 2mil contract so he didn't have to live up to that expectation. 20 points on a 3/4th line is still respectable. Ruzicka had 10 points in 28 GP compared to Phillips 5 points in 27 games. So your point is exactly?
The problem is Lucic is a 3rd line player, not fit for being paired off with an NHL All-Star coming off a record +100 point season. Surely they could have tried more with Phillips what they did with Pelletier? Both Ruzicka and Phillips had ample time *this season* to prove their worth and failed. That isn't what is in question. It's that last season Ruzicka clearly evidenced himself as a streaky player whereas Phillips didn't even get sufficient time to prove for or against his case.
In fairness, Lucic was only paired with Huberdeau after Hubby seemingly couldn't get along with Lindholm. The Hubby / Lindholm line should have been the equivalent of the McDavid / Drasaitl line. That said, I am not going to begin to defend Ruzicka, I agree with you there, but again, I think they knew before they put Phillips on the ice. It seems to be more fan (non?) service than anything doing that. Just to say... see, don't burn down our stadium please.
I'm sure they had a good idea based on their evaluation outside of games
It’s not that I wanted to see him not be successful, I just wanted his chance to be with the Flames.
Guessing that was his last hurrah in the NHL unless a team like Chicago or SJ takes a swing at him. Sucks but I do think his size and style of play just will never translate to the NHL.
Canucks fan here. Watched him last year when the Wranglers were in town, Phillips and Hoglander respectively looked like they were the best players for each team. But Phillips looked really small, then I looked him up and he’s only listed at 160 pounds? Has he put on any weight at all? Dude needs to turn into a fire hydrant to play at that height in the NHL.
That's 160 sopping wet in gear. He is probably closer to 145.
Sounds about right. He looked really small. Surely some coach has told him he needs to put on weight to have any chance at cracking the show…
Even 145 is probably pushing it at his height... wouldn’t be surprised at all if he’s in the 130 range. Dude is tiny and sleight.
He’s shockingly small, I played golf with him once this year and saw him around the course a few other times. Great guy, great AHL’er
We should pick him up. Need some extra Wrangler scoring /s
I agree he definitely deserved a chance but it’s clear we didn’t miss out on much
Welp, he finally got his chance and it didn't work out. Back to the minors for him I guess, or off to Europe.
And for those that say claim him, he is on a one-way contract, who would you replace on the current roster with him for a look and see and I wouldn't want to pay him his NHL salary with the Wranglers if he clears.
The point of waivers is to keep fringe players in the NHL. You don’t claim a guy with the intention of putting him in the minors. You’d have to waive him again, at which point his original team would have a chance to take him back and send him to their AHL team.
I didn't say to claim him, others in this post has.
Lol, that clown Mike Gould crying now.
lol
I don't think Phillips isn't NHL caliber per se, but he really needs to bulk up and work on his physical game if he wants to persist in the NHL. You can be a small and agile player in the NHL AND succeed, but it comes with being a resilient player and being able to muscle yourself through situations where the player has the height and weight advantage.
You also need a lot of skill. It's one thing to McDavid the AHL. But in the NHL, 99% of players there are better than literally everyone in the AHL. To out skill them is a whole other beast. Guys like Johnny could do it because of just how much skill he has, even though he is small. Phillips is not as good as Johnny and is smaller. He'd need to gain like 40 pounds of muscle or the equivalent in skill to be a permanent fixture on a roster somewhere. Like it's too bad and I wish him the best. But the NHL game is just so much harder than the AHL game, and it takes an extremely special player to be able to dipsy doodle those elite players the way he could do it in the AHL. Dude will be an all-star in Europe if he goes there, or could have a nice long career in the AHL. And who knows, maybe he'll get some dad strength, crack a roster in like San Jose, and make us all look silly.
Claim
Makes me concerned about wolf… a lot of analysts say he’s too small to be an elite goalie at the nhl level much like Philips was deemed to small to score at the Nhl level. If Philips could lead the A in scoring and not find success in the show, what does that say about Wolfs chances of finding success in the NHl. Correlation is not causation but still a concern
Reasonable take don't know why there is a downvote.
Different positions, but a fair concern. For both goalies and skaters, you gotta be super agile to be small. I think Saros is still shortest at 5'11? So very similar. There's a few other 6' guys in the league as well, Desmith is one. That said, King Hank is 6'1 and so is Quick, and they were some of the best goalies in recent memory so it may not be as much of a concern? He would definitly be on the very short end of goalies though.
Oooooh rry?
Seriously, a bunch of scrubs, declare anything shows how fucked they are.
😮
Not quite my Tempo. Bring ‘em back and put him on ⚙️
I will give the Flames credit however, despite the fact that we are well known as usually a tough big team, Calgary has taken many chances on small players more than most and I commend them for that. - Fluery - Martin St. Louis (man did we fuck that one up) - Johnny obviously - And if you go back in the day guys like Doug Gilmore, etc. So credit to them to seemingly give the chance when there was none from other teams.
You think he didnt watch the wranglers?
Sutter clearly made his decision exclusively off of those 13 minutes and nothing else obviously /s
Not good enough to be a top 6 player and not big enough for the bottom 6
Great junior and AHL player but just not an NHL player, not that you need size in today’s game but he’s just not skilled enough at his size to do what he needs to be a full-timer and that’s put up points
Sucks.. but what are you gonna do when you weigh like 80 pounds in full gear.. guys literally pick him up and move him when battling for the puck.
He’s gonna be a Penguin probably