[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by New Era

I think your view is very myopic. If a team recognizes that it has to change its approach to management and talent acquisition it is first going to change the philosophy and then bring in the appropriate personnel to support such a change. That would be considered the first step towards making change.

Sure, it's change. And most teams periodically change their management strategies and systems substantially. But a rebuild is a very specific type of change.

Originally Posted by New Era

How do you know how any of these players will progress?

I don't. None of us do. So all we can rely on is probability. Most prospects of the calibre you cited never stick as NHLers. Most middle-of-the-road NHLers were once highly-regarded prospects. That's just the odds.

Originally Posted by New Era

You're making a negative assumption with nothing to base it on other than you're a Flames fan and can say we have drafted poorly for years so we'll continue to draft poorly.

It's not a negative assumption at all. And it has nothing to do with the Flames track record. I happen to be more optimistic about the Flames scouting and prospecting than I've been in a long time. By saying half those prospects would be busts I was simply making the same assessment I would make of every other team's prospect pool. Take a look at the Duck's prospect pool from eight years ago. Riddled with busts. Same as the Hurricanes, Senators, and every other team in the league.

Originally Posted by New Era

Did you project Brodie to be a top player when he was drafted?

Nope. However, I also wasn't pencilling in Matt Pelech as a guaranteed shut-down defenceman, or Greg Nemisz as a 2nd line power winger, the way a lot of folks here were.

Some prospects develop better than projected. A lot more developed worse than hoped. And again, that goes for every team in the league.

Originally Posted by New Era

You have no idea what we have at the moment.

And you have no idea what Anaheim, Minnesota, Phoenix, LA, St. Louis, and the rest of the teams in our conference have at the moment. Any of their prospects is as likely to exceed their projection when drafted as ours. And we started this rebuild with a worse collection of under 25 talent than almost any other franchise in the league. We're not competing with the Flames franchise of 10-15 years ago; we're competing against the other teams in the NHL today and in the futre.

Originally Posted by New Era

Now, what we are certain of is that we have multiple prospects that have excelled at their respective levels of play and have shown great growth.

Sure. And if you spent some looking into other teams, you'd find the same thing is true of their prospect base. Don't make the mistake of using the Flames drafting and development history - widely acknowledged as perhaps the worse in the league over the last 20 years - as a guideline to how we are doing today. It looks like we have certainly improved, but even dramatic improvement would only bring us into line with with NHL mediocrity.

Originally Posted by New Era

What they develop into will be determined in the next couple of years, but they shown a lot of positive things that would lead one to believe things are turning around and our depth is building nicely.

I agree. But considering where we were starting from, and assuming the goal is to build an elite, cup-challenging core, we have a long, long way to go. Your assertion that we have the core of the rebuild in place already is wildly optimistic.

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

That fact that you seek out every post with a hint of posts like the ones you responded to in this thread is why you have the reputation you do.

Some times, actually often times, fans are allowed to be fans.

And that doesn't mean every time they are - that someone should feel obligated to come along and toss a big bucket of ice water on them.

You're not considering the context of this thread. Some people have argue we need to improve goaltending now. Others believe this is the beginning of a long rebuild, and this isn't the point to trade away assets for goaltending. And then New Era jumped in and asserted that the core of the rebuilt Flames is already in place. So why are the fans who think this will be a long rebuild, and we should relax and be patient, the negative fans, while those who think we've largely accomplished the rebuild the positive fans? Why is optimism about the present a more admirable fan sentiment than patience?