2013-14 Flames Expectations

[ben voyonsdonc]

After the draft and today's opening to the free agent market, it looks like there is a vision for the 2013 Flames.

We are probably going to have less NHL proven talent than anyone else in the league and it will be a challenging season. As the W-L column likely won't be in our favour, I want to get your opinion on:

- How will we gauge success for the Flames? How can we tell if Hartley and Feaster are doing their jobs? Is there a metric that you are going to watch to see if we are making progress?
- Can Flames fans actually handle an 82 game season where victories are going to be few and far between?

[Erick Estrada]

Top 5* team book it.

*2014 NHL entry draft 1st round order.

[Keselke]

An absolute disaster, lots of growing pains and losses...but exciting to see the young guys going forward

[kyuss275]

Measure Hartley if he can get forwards to commit a 200' game and have a plan for the D to play in their own zone.

Measure Feaster by not making a panick move when they lose 4-5 games in a row. I think that will happen many times next seasons.

[dissentowner]

I think we will finish 14th in the West. I think Nashville actually has less talent then we do.

[Lanny'sDaMan]

I have no clue. Honestly, I want to be optimistic and say we slip into 8th, but we could just as easily be bottom 5.

I'm going to say we miss out on a top 5 pick and end up in say... 10 or 11th in the west.

[nik-]

Long way to go until the season, but it's looking like bottom three. At least some of the basement dwellers with us should be better next year (Fla, Col, Carolina).

[getoverit]

Top 3 pick at the draft I just hope they compete and play hard against regardless of who plays. Our young guys develop and see progress in their game and have Baertchi and Monahan start becoming who we believe they can be

[Nsd1]

9th place finish.

[rogermexico]

26th-30th overall.

[gargamel]

Success won't be measured in wins or losses, but it will be a positive season if the young guys get lots of playing time, everyone competes hard, and the Flames are a pain in the ass for other teams to play against.

[REDVAN]

11th place in the west, but only 3 points out... we'll be out of it the whole time but it'll look close.

[Eric Vail]

The Flames will have a tough time keeping it close most nights. They will be BAD. I think they will be worse than any time in their 40+ year history. We will have an excellent shot at 30th next year.

[Redliner]

6th in the west. Surprise the entire league and and lose the Stanley Cup Final by a score of 2-1 in Game 7.

[FBI]

I'm going to treat next season like I treated the last 10 games of last season, just focus on the young guys and get pumped by how they perform..

[MisterJoji]

Very likely bottom 5 in the league. But we are going to punish other teams physically in those losses, which will still make it quite a bit of fun to watch. And who knows? Did anyone expect the Flames to even make the playoffs the year they went to the finals? All we need is for each player to play to their potential, have a few of our young guys continue to progress, and pray to god Berra or Ramo can be a legit starter and they might surprise a few people. If they can all play a team game for a full 60 minutes, taking into account we have already gotten rid of a few floaters/entitled guys, we might be respectable. Probably not, but living in Edmonton my absolute dream is for Calgary to make the playoffs next year have Edmonton miss and I can say that our 1/2 of a shorten season commitment to rebuild is already more successful that Year 5 of Edmonton's rebuild.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

I think we will finish 14th in the West. I think Nashville actually has less talent then we do.

Nashville might have less offensive talent but they will have a distinct advantage over the Flames in the "Goals Against" category. If Nashville finds some goals either from their new acquisitions or their new young players then I think they will have a better shot at being competitive than the Flames.

I expect the Flames to be solidly in the basement with the Panthers.

I am a little concerned that we have added too many players and that it will interfere with our ability to promote young players to the big club. More changes are going to have to happen.

[Lucifer]

I'm dreaming, I know.

[ben voyonsdonc]

My biggest concern is that I don't want Feaster or Hartley to get fired after a couple of months of losing but I also don't want them to get a free pass either because of the lack of NHL proven talent.

For me, Feaster needs to disconnect his phone line until next year. This is the path that he has chosen and it is a path that he must walk. It will be hard to stand firm when millions of Flames fans are breathing down his neck to do something. I'm hoping that ownership continues to see the vision through to its logical success or failure.

On a personal level, I'm glad the Flames have decided to commit to a vision but I think it will be much tougher in reality, than in theory, to watch a team lose on a regular basis.

[fundmark19]

Without mason Raymond confirmed signing a bottom feeder looking to win the lottery. With mason Raymond signing 7 seed sleeper to conferance finals