It was interesting reading about how Boston, LA, and Chicago were built. Those teams had some amazing drafts, especially Boston's 2006 draft (Kessil, Lucic, and Marchand). Chicago had three solid drafts in a row, and were particularly successful in the later rounds. The Penguins rebuild was less impressive in my opinion. Landing Crosby was 100% luck.
It is kind of sad reading that though... the Pens and Hawks rebuilds took over 5 years. It goes without saying that most would prefer a faster rebuild.
I hope the Flames manage to follow Boston's and LA's path which combined good drafting with shrewd trades and FA signings. Do the Flames currently have the staff in place to make those decisions though? I'm doubtful. Scouting over the last couple of years appears to have been a major improvement. Feaster has not impressed with his trades in that he has achieved underwhelming returns, was not timely (in other words, did not move Iginla when he probably should have), and under values 2nd round picks (look at who Chicago and Boston drafted in the 2nd). Free agent wise I'm also skeptical about his signings.
Like you said there are some potential similarities with the Flames, but it is very early on and it is realistically impossible to say that for sure. I think we can be confident that currently there are no potential franchise players here, although Baertschi, Gaudreau or someone else may surprise. If the Flames draft MacKinnon, Jones, or Drouin, the Flames may replace Iginla quicker than expected. Personally I'd lean towards taking both forwards ahead of Jones.
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