I have a ton of respect for what the Sharks did last season. They were on the cusp of the playoffs right around the trade deadline, but made a decision on two players (Clowe and Murray) who were not going to be returning to their team. The Sharks also knew that their cupboards in the minors were looking fairly barren.
Despite being close, they made those trades netting a whole whack of 2nd round picks in the next few years.
They stuck to their long term vision and organizational plan, trading away two players who were not in their long term plans without getting caught up in their current position in the standings.
Good organizations have the ability to do this. Should the Flames end up being in a similar spot (and a lot has to go right in order to do this), hopefully they make a decision like the Sharks did, which means moving some pending UFAs.
They ended up making the playoffs too.
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