On Wednesday the Calgary Flames announced that T.J. Brodie will miss the next 3-6 weeks after suffering a broken bone in his hand during Monday's split squad game against Edmonton.
Some thoughts on that and other Flames tidbits:
- With Brodie out of the lineup you have to imagine Dougie Hamilton will start the year alongside Mark Giordano. I'd imagine Kris Russell and Dennis Wideman will remain a pairing, too. I'm not overly high on Russell and I think Wideman's production will regress a bit this season but you can do much worse than a Giordano - Hamilton, Russell - Wideman top-4.
Realistically Giordano and Hamilton can give Bob Hartley a steady 25 minutes per night so he'll need 35 from the rest of the defense.
- Brodie's absence also means another roster spot - at least for a few weeks - will be up for grabs. Tyler Wotherspoon has had a pretty good camp, management seems to like Jakub Nakladal and Ryan Wilson (in camp on a PTO) is solid when healthy so the Flames should be able to survive for a handful of games if they plug one or two of these guys into the lineup. All three of them could very well be upgrades over Deryk Engelland.
If I'm Bob Hartley I think I'd go with something like this:
Giordano - Hamilton Russell - Wideman Wotherspoon - Wilson
- Flames prospect Andrew Mangiapane was named assistant captain of the Barrie Colts today. He will be one of the team's most important players and I would not be surprised if he's able to put up 100+ points again this season playing on a line with Julius Nattinen (Ducks) and Kevin Labanc (Sharks). Barrie's season opener is Friday in Kingston.
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