[shutout]

Was the Erixon camp willing to go back in the draft to any other team, or were they bluffing. Any other team would have wanted to have a deal in place before a trade within 48 hours of the deadline, so it would be easy enough for the agent to tell other teams that he was not interested in going there. Leaving just the Rangers as the only option.
Either the Rangers deal was the best deal from a number of teams or the Rangers deal was the only deal because that is the only place where Erixon wanted to go. If he went back into the draft the other teams just have to be told he is not going there and he would have fallen to the Rangers.
Reality the trade is: Rangers – Erixon, 5th round pick, 1st round pick Flames – Horak, two 2nd round picks
Or else it would be: Rangers – Erixon Flames – 2nd round pick
Not sure which is better for Calgary, but I definitely see that the Rangers screwed us over. Did the Rangers get inside information from the player, family, or agent? That would be tampering.
Did Erixon decide to string the Flames along so that the Rangers would not have to give up the #15 pick? Possible and good strategy if you want to go to a team that has lots of good assets.
Somebody with the Flames needed to be looking at all the options, talking to any and all sources, and making some hard decisions.
As it stands, the Flames were either incompetent in finding out information, ignorant in ignoring the information, or the equivalent of the A&W Root Bear who is just out bouncing around looking for hugs and love and they were to naive to consider they were being screwed with. Either way it is brutal mismanagement of a top asset for the organization.
This is how Feaster manages a hockey team, through mistakes and apologies.