Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Flames Fan
Couple of points here:
1) Do NOT trade Gaudreau until you know what you have at the pro level (Abbotsford/Utica). The Flames made a huge mistake by mis-evaluating St Louis and let him go for nothing. Size isn't necessarily better when you have players with dynamic skill sets.
2) Is it a must for the Flames to draft their center ice men? This was the O'Reilly situation for me. They didn't want to wait to draft and develop a guy for 2 years to get him to the point O'Reilly is at now. There are deals to be done for current prospects that are closer to the NHL than a guy that would be drafted this year. To me, this is why Feaster must trade some of our veterans for another team's center men. They won't come cheap or easy, but a deal can be made.
3) If we end up being in the top 5 for drafting, we must pick the best available player. Ideally a center man would be best, but if it's Jones we have to take him. It would allow for us to trade J-Bo or Gio or another player that could net a good return on investment. The franchise is slowly acquiring assets and at some point in about 3 years everything will start coming together.
4) We will have to be patient and watch what happens this trade deadline, draft, and free agent season. As long as they make a move that improves the team with the long term in mind, then it's a good move. I think we've seen the end of band aids to try and make this team a playoff team. That's not to say that they honestly believed Cervenka, Hudler, and Wideman were band aids. Hudler and Wideman were long term investments in secondary talent. Cervenka was a wild card that could have paid off big, and still could IMO. The only oddity so far with Feaster's moves was the weird technicality in the O'Reilly deal. I'm still confident they will make decent, if not good moves for this franchise. I'm not happy with the current team, and I doubt they are too. Franchises go through down years and can bounce right back the next year. Parity is very high in the league, and the difference between last and 8th is sometimes down to luck and injuries (not making that excuse for us BTW). The difference between 7th/8th and 3rd/4th is also razor thin. My point is that if Feaster and Co. make 2-3 shrewd moves this franchise could be competitive and respectable again. I only ask that all the fans be patient to see how they respond to the current failure of the team before lynching them. We are all too quick to want to fire people for a lack of success. I mean, what exactly did Brian Burke do but make the Leafs a playoff team again after a disaster situation he walked into? Let them do their jobs.
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On point 2, yes I think the Flames have to draft their nos 1 center, when good young talented centers come up on the market it is because they have a fatal flaw, no GM in his right mind is giving them away, which is why Burke matched to keep Kessler as did the Avs.
If you do manage too, at huge expense, steal one away it is only then you find out about his dodgy psyche or inability to play nice on the team.
On point 4, well we have no choice to be patiant as it isn't our team none the less the plan this far has been asinine and there is no reason to believe that Feaster is about to turn into a decent GM or stop being little more than a gophor for King and the owners any time soon.