News and Notes from the Weekend
By Ryan Pike
11 years ago
Leland Irving (Resolute/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)
BABY FLAMES COLLECT GOALIES
The Flames organization continued to collect goaltenders at a torrid pace this past week. After signing Leland Irving on July 27, the Abbotsford Heat followed suit with a pair of signings. The baby Flames inked veteran netminder Barry Brust on August 8 and Danny Taylor on August 10.
The signings give the Flames quite a few goalies in their pro development system. Under professional agreements for 2012-13 are Miikka Kiprusoff, Henrik Karlsson, Leland Irving, Joni Ortio, Barry Brust and Danny Taylor. However, Ortio will be on loan to TPS Turku of SM-Liiga for next season, while both Karlsson and Irving would need to pass through waivers to play in the AHL.
The Abbotsford Heat begin play in early October.
BUTLER ON CBA TALKS
Chris Butler (Resolute/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0)
As the National Hockey League Players’ Association prepares its rebuttal to the NHL owners’ initial CBA proposal, the individual players have begun to weigh in via social media.
Flames blueliner Chris Butler chimed in yesterday via his Twitter account:
“CBA thoughts…The OWNERS design a business model that allowed the players to increase compensation by growing the game/increasing revenue”
“#theplayers have grown the game to the best/most exciting/most profitable it’s been, now the OWNERS want their money back. #hedgeyourbets.”
The NHLPA is expected to submit its proposal to the NHL on Tuesday.
IGINLA’S PUCK POSSESSION
The excellent Puck Stops Here blog over at Kuklas Korner has been looking at some advanced stats metrics. Lately they’ve taken a look at Jarome Iginla’s puck possession numbers. The numbers are not pretty.
“This past season he had the tenth worst team and zone adjusted Corsi rating in the league. To put things simply, when Iginla was on the ice Calgary’s opponents dominated the game. They controlled the puck. This is particularly bad because he led the Flames in ice time among forwards, so there was a considerable amount of time the other team controlled the puck.”
They go on to detail how, surprise, Jarome Iginla is a one-dimensional player (that dimension being offense.) They also offer a rather sobering assessment of the present situation.
“Calgary lacks the depth to play him in a reduced role where he would likely be much more useful.”
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