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browna · 03-20-2013, 12:50 PM

As far as the big picture reason currently facing the owners; I think its fear of the unknown off and on the ice without Iginla.

Off the ice, the return if he goes is never go to be enough from a PR standpoint for a lifelong Flame and face of the franchise to even non hockey fans let alone hockey fans.

On the ice, the pressure on whoever they get back will be immense, from hardcore and casual, and the general public, to one day be anywhere close to Iginla...yes there will be drafting and other factors which play a huge role, but whoever comes back will be tagged as the "guy the Flames traded their franchise player for".

IMO There will also be fallout from the current roster, players who like/play well only because of, or came here because of Iginla. Then the worry from the owners may well be an inadvertant scorched earth with so many holes to fill so soon. On top of that, the reputation of the franchise, built under Sutter for UFA's, also has to be considered (look what happened in EDM when Lowe got too cavalier with dictating to players what to do) in so far as treating players properly to attract them here...UFA's will still be key to suppliment this team in however it decides to rebuild after Iginla.

From that, I think the fear from owners is falling back into that losing money proposition of the mid 90's (minus the Canadian dollar issue, though that's offset by the Flames not being a top spender in those days anyways), with not a lot of hope to sell, with too much change and banking on a lot of things to turn out positive in the next couple years with player devlopment, not only to get better, but even just to fill the holes that the players such as Iginla held.

How it got to this point is too many cooks in the kitchen, or better put, a cook in the kitchen that should've been a waiter, not a cook.

So it's most of the factors listed in some regard IMO and they all tie into that fear of losing the off ice momentum and the fear of regressing into the on ice and off ice situation of the Young Guns era and a rebuild that my take 2-3+ years (with no guarantees) to provide any tangible results, is probably not the future the owners want to be facing.

I don't think the on ice product is nearly as bad as the Todd Simpson days on the ice as far as hope for the future...but the results aren't looking much better and there are some decisions that need to be made one way or another for the business to revitalize itself.

03-20-2013, 12:50 PM	#17
browna Franchise Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Calgary Exp:	As far as the big picture reason currently facing the owners; I think its fear of the unknown off and on the ice without Iginla. Off the ice, the return if he goes is never go to be enough from a PR standpoint for a lifelong Flame and face of the franchise to even non hockey fans let alone hockey fans. On the ice, the pressure on whoever they get back will be immense, from hardcore and casual, and the general public, to one day be anywhere close to Iginla...yes there will be drafting and other factors which play a huge role, but whoever comes back will be tagged as the "guy the Flames traded their franchise player for". IMO There will also be fallout from the current roster, players who like/play well only because of, or came here because of Iginla. Then the worry from the owners may well be an inadvertant scorched earth with so many holes to fill so soon. On top of that, the reputation of the franchise, built under Sutter for UFA's, also has to be considered (look what happened in EDM when Lowe got too cavalier with dictating to players what to do) in so far as treating players properly to attract them here...UFA's will still be key to suppliment this team in however it decides to rebuild after Iginla. From that, I think the fear from owners is falling back into that losing money proposition of the mid 90's (minus the Canadian dollar issue, though that's offset by the Flames not being a top spender in those days anyways), with not a lot of hope to sell, with too much change and banking on a lot of things to turn out positive in the next couple years with player devlopment, not only to get better, but even just to fill the holes that the players such as Iginla held. How it got to this point is too many cooks in the kitchen, or better put, a cook in the kitchen that should've been a waiter, not a cook. So it's most of the factors listed in some regard IMO and they all tie into that fear of losing the off ice momentum and the fear of regressing into the on ice and off ice situation of the Young Guns era and a rebuild that my take 2-3+ years (with no guarantees) to provide any tangible results, is probably not the future the owners want to be facing. I don't think the on ice product is nearly as bad as the Todd Simpson days on the ice as far as hope for the future...but the results aren't looking much better and there are some decisions that need to be made one way or another for the business to revitalize itself. Last edited by browna; 03-20-2013 at 12:58 PM.