Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN
Jackets, Panthers, Islanders. Still waiting for them to be legitimate contenders.
All of those teams have had bad to horrible management, although the Jackets situation looks to be turning around for the better.
Pittsburgh got the way they are because when they happened to suck coincided with a couple generation players. Do you see that from Jones or Mackinnon? Solid bonafide all star players, sure, but not on the Sid or Evgeni level.
You don't need superstars/the best player in the league to be considered a contender (see LA,St.Louis).
Calling rebuilds the most common route for success is just wrong. St. Louis and Washington aren't cup contenders and haven't been to a conference final, so the jury is still out on them having their rebuild turn into a success.
How isn't it? Please tell me which teams didn't have to go through a rebuild in order to get where they are today. Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA, Boston are all contenders who had to use a rebuild/major retooling, same goes for Washington and St.Louis.
There's nothing wrong if the Flames go out and sign a couple UFA's this year. As long as Feaster doesn't throw away top picks/prospects in trades, I'm okay with bringing in vets to help mentor the Flames prospects that are ready for the show.
True
Some of the Flames prospects are just not ready yet and why throw them to the wolves so we can get another top pick next year? How does getting embarassed, night in and night out for an entire season help their progression?
Who said anything about throwing our prospects to the woods?
I don't see the Flames as a 5 year fix or plan or whatever you wanna call it. To me, the key to success is getting results from your entry level contract guys. The cupboards aren't completely bare and you have ownership willing to spend money. Go ahead and spend it, and then it's on coaching to get the max out of your young kids taking up little of your cap space.
The thing is we don't have any prospects that are going to be demanding huge offers after their ELC, we have Sven, Brodie, Reinhart, and our '13 pick(although this one could demand a bit), not Toews, Kane, Buff, Ladd, etc. I'd much rather stock up on young players/prospects then continue to try to be the Leafs of the west.
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