A brief introduction…

                                                                                                    

                                              

There’s no really good way to go about this, so let’s get right to it: my name is Robert Cleave, and I’ve been sent here to clean up this one-horse town asked by our benevolent overlord Mr. Wilson to join Flames Nation as a contributor. For those of you familiar with my virtual scribblings over at M and G, I suspect you know what you’re in for. If you aren’t, this sort of thing might give you an idea of where I’m coming from re: the Flames and their current management. 

At any rate, I’m looking forward to adding my thoughts to those of Kent and the others as we try to make sense of where the Flames are headed this off-season. That task might well be beyond mere mortals, but I see no reason not to at least make an attempt 😉 In all seriousness, teams do more to shape their seasons between mid-June and mid-July than at any other time of the year, so the next month should be interesting, even for a Flames club that might have a difficult time adjusting its roster.

In terms of content, with actual hockey finishing last night, it’s time to focus on the Flames’ roster for next season. Kent’s been doing admirable work on the prospect end of things, but beyond the young ‘uns, there’s one NHLer of note that the club has to account for this summer. With that in mind, Ian White will go under the microscope this week as we examine his potential arbitration hearing in detail.  

Thanks again to Kent for the invitation. We’ll see how long it takes for him to regret it.