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Calgary4LIfe · 11-28-2014, 10:10 AM

There are very few GMs in the league that only make poor moves. Snow is a guy who is highly criticized for making poor moves (though I do think some of his moves are unnecessary gambles - i.e. the Vanek/Moulson trade - Wang has much to do with the failures of that team) but even he has turned everything to gold this season thus far. That scouting staff on the Islanders seem to get the job done (Nielsen looks like a franchise-level player in the making, though we will see if he will really become one).

With Feaster, he did a lot of bad, did a lot of good.

The Good:
- Stopped trading picks for players to win now (this is when I said the 'rebuild has kind of started' 1.5 years or so before finally trading Iginla). He made the bleeding stop so to speak.
- Under his watch, the team did draft a lot of skill into the lineup
- Won some nice trades (like the Cammy trade)
- Did change the culture a bit organizationally by having a 'brain-trust' type of format where everyone was able to speak their minds (this was very important)
- He did bring in more scouting staff (Though D&D expanded GREATLY under Sutter, and the entire drafting philosophy around "Hockey IQ" and "Strong Character Guys ONLY" evolved under Sutter's Tenure and NOT under Feaster's) which I thought was hugely important as we were looking like a team poised to rebuild
- Weisbrod - though apparently the guy had many supposed warts, he did do one thing that was important, and that was to make the scouts overlap and get different eyes on different areas to confirm or rebuke another scout's findings. When you are fighting for 'your guy' but you didn't really see much of the 'other guy', how can you really fight for him? That was an important piece I thought, though Weisbrod overall MAY have brought some negatives with him as well.

I also want to bring one thing up. Organizationally, Feaster did quite a lot to rebuild. It started in the front offices, and the point above in 'expanding the scouting department' is of HUGE importance. There was an article I linked back by Duhatschek regarding Hartley (was in the anti-Dowbiggen thread or something) and in it there was a quote by Hartley saying something interesting about 'the rebuild'. This was as he was getting hired. Looking back now, it did seem that Feaster was getting his ducks in a row before finally rebuilding. Contrast that with the 'wandering the desert' and 'if the Flames want to rebuild, they will have to find a new GM' speeches tells me I am reading too much into it, but was a very interesting comment by Hartley nonetheless.

The Bad:
- ROR offer-sheet. This was an embarrassment to the organization. Whether you believe ROR would have had to pass through waivers or not, it was still quite the embarrassment organizationally. The entire management team essentially went into silence for a month or so after that.

- The Richards offer - Would have simply been a huge move backwards. However, I do think the Flames would have ended up using a compliance buyout on him anyways, so even if the Flames did get him, it wouldn't have been that huge a deal (except for the owners shelling out that coin). However, the real danger is that Richards would have done 'ok' with Iginla and Tanguay and the team decided not to rebuild.

- His media presence: "Fool me once", Jankowski draft where he goes and proclaims that the kid will be the 'best player out of this draft' (horrible thing to do to the kid, and made Jankowski the butt of all jokes), the ROR incident above (not coming out and addressing it other than a released statement was very telling at the time I thought, when you consider how often he would speak to the media, his "Make the playoffs guarantee" (though he got ambushed a bit my TSN, the politically correct answer would have been "30 teams in this league are doing everything possible to get into that dance, and there is nobody that counts themselves out of it this early)

- Trades - definitely some horrible trades, for what was supposedly high-value assets. Having to give up a 2nd to unload Kotalik was a HUGE mistake. Apparently, Kotalik wasn't interested in returning to the AHL, and was more interested in going to the KHL. Had Feaster bothered to talk to him he could have saved that 2nd (though the Regehr return was still bad regardless, even though I like Byron).

- The Iginla trade debacle. I know a lot of people blame Iginla, but it was Feaster who should have gotten that down on paper, or not have told him about the Pittsburgh deal. When you don't get sign-off in advance, and then approach Iginla with a "Boston and Pittsburgh both made offers, and we hope you take Boston", do you really think Iginla is going to say: "Ok, I will do what is best for you and your team that I am leaving now."? Didn't get sign-off on the waive list, and it cost him.

The Ugly:
- I know many posters will disagree with me on this one as it is always such a hot topic, but Baertschi. I think forcing Hartley into having Baertschi in the lineup was awful. I think trying to appease fans and show 'hope' to the franchise (and save his job) is one of the worst things you can do as a GM. You ruin prospects and careers that way. Baertschi was not ready, and possibly created this sense of entitlement that many posters (myself included) felt he suddenly developed. IF (and it is difficult to confirm how true this is anyways) this was the case, then I find this 'unforgivable' in every sense of the word, especially when I think this strikes at the heart of the issues up north.

The Awesome:
- Bob Hartley. I thought it was simply Feaster bringing in his own old boy's club (and maybe it was) but wow was that a good hire. I thought I would hate Hartley, but I have to admit during his press conference he won me over. "Hard working team", "Fun to watch", "High-tempo" - all things I was hoping to see, and he has thus far delivered. Without Hartley, one has to wonder if the Flames currently would garnering the praise they have so far earned.

Did Feaster do enough to deserve to be let go? I am of the opinion he did. There is no denying that he did a lot of good, a lot of bad, and a lot of 'meh' as well. I really didn't like his media presence at all (though many posters felt he was refreshing after the Sutter years). I like a guy like Treliving more in the media, or even Sutter who says nothing and then just does something. It always seemed like he was trying to 'earn' points with the reporters and fans, rather than just do what he needed to do. You don't get that sense at all from Treliving (and no way did you get any of that with Sutter - Sutter seemed bent on making the reporters' lives as miserable as possible at times!).

I personally can't credit him as an awesome GM when arguably his best moves was to 'be hands off at the draft' and attempts that failed. Other moves like Russell was a huge win, and though Burke was the President by then, I give full credit to Feaster on Colborne (he was signing Calgary/Alberta guys, Colborne was rumored linked to the Flames before with Weisbrod anyways, and there was suddenly a low-risk opportunity).

Our 2nd pairing on defence at the moment is totally his call (though I am sure pro scouts helped to guide him to signing them). Though everyone dumps on Wideman a lot, without that 2nd pairing doing this well, there is no way the Flames are this high in the standings either. Feaster deserves a lot of credit and accolades, but let's not overdo it as he made some HUGE mistakes and a couple 'almost' even bigger mistakes that just didn't happen (thankfully!).

11-28-2014, 10:10 AM	#85
Calgary4LIfe Franchise Player Join Date: Jun 2010 Exp:	There are very few GMs in the league that only make poor moves. Snow is a guy who is highly criticized for making poor moves (though I do think some of his moves are unnecessary gambles - i.e. the Vanek/Moulson trade - Wang has much to do with the failures of that team) but even he has turned everything to gold this season thus far. That scouting staff on the Islanders seem to get the job done (Nielsen looks like a franchise-level player in the making, though we will see if he will really become one). With Feaster, he did a lot of bad, did a lot of good. The Good: - Stopped trading picks for players to win now (this is when I said the 'rebuild has kind of started' 1.5 years or so before finally trading Iginla). He made the bleeding stop so to speak. - Under his watch, the team did draft a lot of skill into the lineup - Won some nice trades (like the Cammy trade) - Did change the culture a bit organizationally by having a 'brain-trust' type of format where everyone was able to speak their minds (this was very important) - He did bring in more scouting staff (Though D&D expanded GREATLY under Sutter, and the entire drafting philosophy around "Hockey IQ" and "Strong Character Guys ONLY" evolved under Sutter's Tenure and NOT under Feaster's) which I thought was hugely important as we were looking like a team poised to rebuild - Weisbrod - though apparently the guy had many supposed warts, he did do one thing that was important, and that was to make the scouts overlap and get different eyes on different areas to confirm or rebuke another scout's findings. When you are fighting for 'your guy' but you didn't really see much of the 'other guy', how can you really fight for him? That was an important piece I thought, though Weisbrod overall MAY have brought some negatives with him as well. I also want to bring one thing up. Organizationally, Feaster did quite a lot to rebuild. It started in the front offices, and the point above in 'expanding the scouting department' is of HUGE importance. There was an article I linked back by Duhatschek regarding Hartley (was in the anti-Dowbiggen thread or something) and in it there was a quote by Hartley saying something interesting about 'the rebuild'. This was as he was getting hired. Looking back now, it did seem that Feaster was getting his ducks in a row before finally rebuilding. Contrast that with the 'wandering the desert' and 'if the Flames want to rebuild, they will have to find a new GM' speeches tells me I am reading too much into it, but was a very interesting comment by Hartley nonetheless. The Bad: - ROR offer-sheet. This was an embarrassment to the organization. Whether you believe ROR would have had to pass through waivers or not, it was still quite the embarrassment organizationally. The entire management team essentially went into silence for a month or so after that. - The Richards offer - Would have simply been a huge move backwards. However, I do think the Flames would have ended up using a compliance buyout on him anyways, so even if the Flames did get him, it wouldn't have been that huge a deal (except for the owners shelling out that coin). However, the real danger is that Richards would have done 'ok' with Iginla and Tanguay and the team decided not to rebuild. - His media presence: "Fool me once", Jankowski draft where he goes and proclaims that the kid will be the 'best player out of this draft' (horrible thing to do to the kid, and made Jankowski the butt of all jokes), the ROR incident above (not coming out and addressing it other than a released statement was very telling at the time I thought, when you consider how often he would speak to the media, his "Make the playoffs guarantee" (though he got ambushed a bit my TSN, the politically correct answer would have been "30 teams in this league are doing everything possible to get into that dance, and there is nobody that counts themselves out of it this early) - Trades - definitely some horrible trades, for what was supposedly high-value assets. Having to give up a 2nd to unload Kotalik was a HUGE mistake. Apparently, Kotalik wasn't interested in returning to the AHL, and was more interested in going to the KHL. Had Feaster bothered to talk to him he could have saved that 2nd (though the Regehr return was still bad regardless, even though I like Byron). - The Iginla trade debacle. I know a lot of people blame Iginla, but it was Feaster who should have gotten that down on paper, or not have told him about the Pittsburgh deal. When you don't get sign-off in advance, and then approach Iginla with a "Boston and Pittsburgh both made offers, and we hope you take Boston", do you really think Iginla is going to say: "Ok, I will do what is best for you and your team that I am leaving now."? Didn't get sign-off on the waive list, and it cost him. The Ugly: - I know many posters will disagree with me on this one as it is always such a hot topic, but Baertschi. I think forcing Hartley into having Baertschi in the lineup was awful. I think trying to appease fans and show 'hope' to the franchise (and save his job) is one of the worst things you can do as a GM. You ruin prospects and careers that way. Baertschi was not ready, and possibly created this sense of entitlement that many posters (myself included) felt he suddenly developed. IF (and it is difficult to confirm how true this is anyways) this was the case, then I find this 'unforgivable' in every sense of the word, especially when I think this strikes at the heart of the issues up north. The Awesome: - Bob Hartley. I thought it was simply Feaster bringing in his own old boy's club (and maybe it was) but wow was that a good hire. I thought I would hate Hartley, but I have to admit during his press conference he won me over. "Hard working team", "Fun to watch", "High-tempo" - all things I was hoping to see, and he has thus far delivered. Without Hartley, one has to wonder if the Flames currently would garnering the praise they have so far earned. Did Feaster do enough to deserve to be let go? I am of the opinion he did. There is no denying that he did a lot of good, a lot of bad, and a lot of 'meh' as well. I really didn't like his media presence at all (though many posters felt he was refreshing after the Sutter years). I like a guy like Treliving more in the media, or even Sutter who says nothing and then just does something. It always seemed like he was trying to 'earn' points with the reporters and fans, rather than just do what he needed to do. You don't get that sense at all from Treliving (and no way did you get any of that with Sutter - Sutter seemed bent on making the reporters' lives as miserable as possible at times!). I personally can't credit him as an awesome GM when arguably his best moves was to 'be hands off at the draft' and attempts that failed. Other moves like Russell was a huge win, and though Burke was the President by then, I give full credit to Feaster on Colborne (he was signing Calgary/Alberta guys, Colborne was rumored linked to the Flames before with Weisbrod anyways, and there was suddenly a low-risk opportunity). Our 2nd pairing on defence at the moment is totally his call (though I am sure pro scouts helped to guide him to signing them). Though everyone dumps on Wideman a lot, without that 2nd pairing doing this well, there is no way the Flames are this high in the standings either. Feaster deserves a lot of credit and accolades, but let's not overdo it as he made some HUGE mistakes and a couple 'almost' even bigger mistakes that just didn't happen (thankfully!).