This piece has people getting pretty heated on other outlets, so I figured I would share it here. Feel free to remove it if it breaks any rules! Thanks!
7 Reasons for Rebuild Seekers to Change Their Tune on the Calgary Flames
by MostLikelyDenim
@Calgary Flames
9 Comments
Are people really saying the Flames should trade Coleman or Kadri? Hanafin is a UFA and should either be extended or traded.
The 3rd argument is ridiculous. We have good late draft picks which is why the team is somewhat competitive. We NEED top end talent. Which you get in the top 5 of the draft.
Doing a full teardown is pretty obviously not in the cards and people who think we should are fooling themselves. As the article says we have a youth movement that started even last year with Pelletier. Not to mention even when we lose, games are close. Outside of winning the lottery getting a top 3 pick is pretty much impossible. Realistically we are looking at a short term rebuild with 3, maybe 3 high draft picks at most. It is vital that we land legitimate 1C prospect in that time though as Backlund – Kadri is not a championship winning 1-2 punch, especially at their ages.
The way some people moan after a loss in this sub, they’d never survive a true rebuild. Plus this team isn’t terrible. It’s just in the mushy middle as always. There’s tons of ways to get there I think. It’ll depends where the best bang for our assets happens to come from.
The single biggest issue at this point frankly is folks that still conflate a normal typical rebuild with a scorched earth, tear it all down rebuild. Those are entirely different things.
Every team, including the Flames, have done the former. Calgary literally just did that a decade ago when they finished with two 6th overalls and one 4th overall pick in a four year span.
Very few teams in league history have done latter and only once did it actually pay off as far as I can remember – Penguins when they tanked to get Lemieux. Usually it fails – Senators with Daigle, Sabres tanking for McDavid but getting Eichel instead, Oilers decade of darkness, etc.
But that’s the thing, no one serious is suggesting the Flames do that latter, just the former. And if you can believe Conroy’s own words, it seems like they might.
Everyone looks at the Stars as the model for a quick retool, but the Canucks and Wings are also viable alternatives as teams that didn’t get lucky enough to win a draft lottery. No top 3 picks for either club but they did manage to find franchise talent nevertheless like Seider, Pettersson, Hughes with top ten picks. That’s what I imagine Conroy was referring to in that athletic article.
Here’s some reasons to get some good picks for a couple years – Almost every team that’s won the cup since the salary cap was introduced had multiple top 12 players that they drafted on their team while they did the winning thing, or/and had traded some of those high leverage assets to get something they needed (see the lightning trading for sergachev)
It’s far from a fool proof plan, but it’s a fuck of alot better than sitting in chronic mediocrity hoping for a miracle run every 30 years.
Great article. Thanks for sharing it.
1. Huby and Sharagovich keep clicking.
2. Trade Lindy, Tanev, and Marky. Get some good returns.
3. Bring up Wolf, Kylington, Pelts, and Coronato.
4. Get someone like Marchessault for Huby in the offseason.
5. Replace Vladar with a cheap veteran to keep Wolf company.
6. Party on.
Reasons 1-7: it will never happen under Edwards. You’re absolutely allowed to follow a different team.