Your off season wishlist

[united]

1. Gas Ken King. Enough said.
2. Re-sign Treliving under direction to disregard Burke's truculence obsession
3. A starting goaltender. Money is going to be tight in the next few seasons so we have to resist the urge to overpay to compensate for the last few seasons as desperate as we are. Should be a few options with the expansion draft looming. Prospect as backup, or cheap Johnson.
4. Shore up the defence:

- Ignore the PDO hot streak and treat Michael Stone as what he is: a bottom-pairing defenceman. If he costs more than bottom-pairing defencemen are worth, walk away. You can't have Stone playing in the top four or be paying him top four money. I know people like him but you need to watch tape with goals for and against edited out - he's basic and does not drive play. Let someone else make the mistake, like we did with Brouwer.
- Find a legitimate top-four partner for Brodie. There are a couple bargains available every year (Cody Franson, for example)
- Fill the bottom pairing with Stone and a prospect and/or two cheap veterans who drive play (also a few available every year). You simply can't have either Engelland or Bartkowski playing on the team.

5. Find a RW who can move up and down the lineup. Pickings in free agency are slim but hopefully Treliving can work his trade magic if need be. Justin Williams is getting up there in age, and isn't a great skater, but he's one of the top 10-foot passers in the league which fits great with the style Johnny and Mony play. A one- or two-year fill-in? Or find another option.
6. A possession driver or two for the bottom six, if they are cheap. Enough wasting roster spots on intangibles all stars like Bouma, Brouwer, F. Hamilton, etc. Get a couple cheap guys who move the puck in the right direction so the big lines can get some offensive zone starts and put the puck in the net.

The Flames are setup great for a few years moving forward. An average or better goalie, a top four defenceman, and a top six winger and they are legitimate contenders. Add depth D and F and they are on the cusp of an elite team. Exciting times.

[Caged Great]

What I would like to see next season.

Gaudreau-Monahan-Legit 1st line RW
Tkachuk-Bennett-Ferland (That'd be fun)
Klimchuk/Shinkaruk/UFA-Backlund-Frolik
Hathaway-Jankowski-Brouwer/Chiasson

Giordano-Hamilton
Brodie-Stone
Kylington-Andersson (Get a vet at the deadline if necessary)

Grubauer/Pickard/Bishop
Gillies

[Love]

Honestly though, we have a great young core. Monahan, Bennett, Tkachuk and Hamilton aren't done growing as players. Finding a goalie will be the challenge for the next 3ish years, but I have no doubt in my mind that Tyler Parsons is our future.

Besides that, I think we need to find our Hossa or Jeff Carter. I don't know how, or what we'll give up, but we're missing that one last piece at forward to put us over the top.

[driveway]

We need solid D behind Hamilton-Giordano.

I like Brodie-Stone, but I feel there's an upgrade out there on Stone. Really though, a non-catastrophic bottom pair has to be the 2nd biggest priority after a goaltender.

[GullFoss]

Johnny Monahan Ferland
Chuckie Backlund Frolik
Landeskog Bennett Lazar
Hathaway Jankowski Hamilton

Gio Hamilton
Brodie Stone
Ramus Kylington

MAF
Johnson (1yr)

[Lil Pedro]

Pray that the honda centre burns down when it's empty one night

[Lanny'sDaMan]

1. Replace Jordan Sigalet
2. Acquire a #1 RW
3. Replace Moose

That about covers it. Though, if #1 gets done mayhap bring Moose back on a 1 year to see if NHL level goalie coaching can round him back into form.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

Make mental note to stop recruiting former Blues. (Jk... maybe)

It worked in the late 80s... Mullen, Gilmour, Ramage, Mark Hunter and Wamsley.

[Vinny01]

New contract for Treliving
New number 1 goalie (legit number 1 not a 1a/b type)
Convince Vegas to take Brouwer
Bring in a solid number 4D
Sign Stone to replace Engellend
Bring in a top 6 RW


Also this one will not be popular but they should make Backlund a contract offer and if he turns it down they should shop and trade him in a sell high move. Jankowski is coming

[SofaProfessor]

Originally Posted by driveway

We need solid D behind Hamilton-Giordano.

I like Brodie-Stone, but I feel there's an upgrade out there on Stone. Really though, a non-catastrophic bottom pair has to be the 2nd biggest priority after a goaltender.

I think the upgrade to Stone is sitting in our system right now. But we can't just throw them into a top 4 role to start the season. If Stone is back we may have to endure a half season or a season of him on the second pairing while the younger guys get up to speed in the NHL. I'm okay with that.

[CroFlames]

I don't want Iggy to be the top line RW, but I definitely want Iggy on this team. He'd be a tremendous source of experience and leadership for the young players, and I think his 4 years away have changed the type of player he is. He knows he's not the top dog anymore, nor the leader.

At this point, I would have no problem with Treliving trading the 1st rounder ++ to get a bona fide top line RW.

I think the goalie market will soften and guys like Bishop, maybe MAF and Miller could be available for reasonable cost/contract.

Nothing else really. Hopefully Hathaway beats out Bouma for a spot, Stajan might get selected by LV, and it shouldn't be too hard to solidify the bottom pair defence. Maybe Kylington or Andersson snag a spot which would be a pleasant surprise.

[zukes]

- Trade for MAF, he'll be cheap in terms of assets, have Pens retain some salary. I prefer this over....

- Sign Bishop if trade for Fleury doesn't work. I prefer Fleury as you have to think one of Parson, Gillies, MacDonald works out and we won;t have to spend on them for some time. Fleury has 2 years left, may get some cap savings. Bishop will want mega $$ and lots of years

- Re-sign Tre

- Re-sign Stone and Versteeg, and Engelland if 3 years or less

- Dump any and/or all of Stajan/Bouma/Brouwer

- Try to get TJ Oshie, but not likely to have th cap space and goalie is much more of a pressing need.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by flamesforcup

I agree its unlikely but i dont see any other semi-realistic scenario for a #1c. And u dont make that trade if u dont think he will re-sign

Nothing wrong with Monahan as our #1 center. Bennett really showed significant improvement since March, he's going to keep getting better. Backlund is great as #2 right now. We're good up the middle. It's goaltending that killed us this year.

Elliott's poor start hurt our chances of home ice or at least our chances of playing somebody other than Anaheim. Johnson and Elliott were both weak at the beginning and thankfully Johnson got hot in November so Elliott could take another month or so to figure out his game. Johnson got cold again after Elliott finally got hot and it was like the Kipper era all over again, we couldn't rely on our backup to win games anymore. Then we get to the playoffs and goaltending was huge in our loss. We need to fix goaltending and hope that our #1LW learns to play hockey and stop pouting.

[The Fonz]

If we're allowed to play make-believe:

- Shinkaruk to Las Vegas as incentive to take Brouwer
- Gillies + Bouma + 17th overall to New Jersey for Schneider
- Gaudreau to Colorado for Landeskog + Pickard
- Re-sign Bennett to a 2yr/2.75M-AAV
- Re-sign Lazar to a 2yr/1.25M-AAV
- Re-sign Stone to a 6yr/3.00M-AAV
- Re-sign Ferland to a 2yr/2.25M-AAV
- Re-sign Versteeg to a 2yr/2.75M-AAV
- Re-sign Engelland to a 2yr/1.5M-AAV
- Sign T.J. Oshie to a 6yr/6.00M-AAV


Landeskog Monahan Oshie
Tkachuk Backlund Frolik
Ferland Bennett Versteeg
Hathaway Jankowski Lazar

Stajan, Hamilton

Giordano Hamilton
Brodie Stone
Andersson Engelland
Bartkowksi

Schneider
Pickard

TEAM CAP = ~$72.500 (including Raymond buy-out)



Blast away!

[dissentowner]

Fire Ken King. He is an embarrassment to the organization.
Bring back Tre
Bring back Stone, Versteeg, Johnson
Dump Brouwer on LV
Promote Jankowski
Acquire Fleury
Don't go chasing UFA that want big money or term.

[Freddy]

My wish list: trade for Tavares. Gaudreau, Ferland, + picks/prospects going the other way.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by Freddy

My wish list: trade for Tavares. Gaudreau, Ferland, + picks/prospects going the other way.

After July 1st with an extension in place though, right?

Imagine trading Gaudreau + for one year of Tavares.

[polak]

More so than anything, a top flight winger to play with Gaudreau.

Someone that can take some attention off of him. The difference in this series was goaltending AND the fact that we couldn't score 5 on 5, a major reason is that our best player was garbage while the Ducks best player was on fire.

I don't want to trade Gaudreau. Well, I do, but I don't want to trade him cause that just replaces Gaudreau getting all of the attention on the first line with someone else getting all the attention on the first line. Tavares isn't Crosby or McDavid. He will still get shut down if he's the only focus of the opposition defense.

[mcjmcj]

I will leave the goalie topic alone, except noting that an upgraded is needed.

Need to add some high end speed and grit to the line-up. The bottom six lack the skill and speed required in today's game. The Flames could also use some speed on the backend, especially when you look at how good the ducks D looked even without key d-men.

In a dream scenario, add a #1 center, a top six RW, speed/grit on the third and flow line, and a goalie.

That's all- I'm going golfing.

[Roof-Daddy]

No idea if any of these guys are or will be available, but a wish list for top line RW's via trade:

1. Charlie Coyle
2. Tyler Toffoli
3. Jeff Carter
4. James Neal
5. Wayne Simmonds
6. Brendan Gallagher
7. Mark Stone
8. Gustav Nyqvist

Obviously most/all of these guys will go nowhere, but usually something unexpected shakes loose every off season.