Quote:
Originally Posted by JD
I don't know about that. Who could have foreseen Darryl Sutter becoming a GM? He was only a coach up until that point. Certainly Button was in trouble at that point (everyone on the Flames was, the franchise was in shambles) and it was widely understood that this was his final shot at hiring a coach. My recollection is that there was a lot of surprise at Darryl's ascension to General Manager. Not so much surprise at Button's firing (or non-renewal).
As for Ken King doing it all, who knows what level of say Button had in that. Just like we will never know what level of involvement King had with the Sutter regime.
Anyway, my argument in this thread was never that Button was a good GM. I was only trying to dispel that initial comment that he set the team back years and years. The team was headed nowhere and floundering when he arrived and it seemed to be when he left. A couple tweaks and an all-star goalie later, they were a video review from a championship. Button wasn't a total buffoon. Rebuilding the Flames with a limited budget was a difficult task for a rookie GM.
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The way I remember it Sutter was calling the shots soon after he got here and Button was reduced to a figure head.