On Monday night, the Calgary Flames announced winger Joseph Cramarossa would be joining the team in camp on a tryout basis.
Split between Anaheim and Vancouver, Cramarossa tallied 10 points in 59 NHL games last season while providing some sandpaper with 133 hits.
His counting totals are somewhat respectable for a 4th line player but his underlying numbers leave a lot to be desired.
With Cramarossa on the ice at 5v5, his teams were out-shot 270-187 (40.9 Shots For%) and out-chanced 256-169 (39.7 Scoring Chance For%). Suffice to say, Anaheim and Vancouver struggled immensely with him on the ice.
Obviously, there are no guarantees this leads to anything but it is concerning players like Cramarossa, Glass and Luke Gazdic, who was actually given a contract, are being remotely considered as 4th line options for a team that wants to contend.
A bad Vancouver team walked away from Cramarossa, a bad New Jersey team walked away from Gazdic, and Glass struggled mightily while spending the majority of the season in the AHL.
I get the want for physicality but these are the kind of players who do more harm than good when in the lineup and there is no shortage of data to back that up.
If the Flames are adamant about having some grit on the 4th line, they would much be better off playing a guy like Garnet Hathaway, which says a lot because his numbers weren't exactly good.
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