Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacks
That article is 3 years old and Sutter did suck at drafting, he had a couple good picks but most were not good.
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I guess you completely missed the point of that article, and what Button had to say, based on how dismissive you are about that article.
Yes, that article was 3 years old - I am not following your point as to why that matters. Has the Flames' current philosophy deviated since then? Does Monahan, Bennett and whomever the Flames select next year not have a single thing to do with the philosophy that evolved under Sutter?
I think a number of fans view the drafting and development program with a start date and an end date that corresponds to a certain GM, and base their opinions strictly off of that. That is certainly one way of looking at it, but IMO, an incomplete way. Drafting and development takes a number of years before you can accurately gauge how well a GM has done. You have to try and see what philosophical differences have changed, you have to see how the scouting and development staff grew or regressed in number, and the turnover. Positive and negative effects may only be revealed with time, and a GM who implemented those may not be around by then.
If you were to look at when Sutter started as a GM in terms of the drafting and development staff, and look at it when he left, there was a huge change. The philosophy that the Flames currently operate under with regards to the draft evolved under him - the same philosophy that Feaster worked under (and that was the point of the article I listed). Sutter did quite a lot of work in rebuilding the drafting and development program - he got it back on track. Feaster came in and reaped all the rewards (unfairly IMO), but he also did add to it by expanding the scouting staff still further (so I think Feaster definitely deserves well-earned praise for his body of work in that area, just not ALL the praise). Hopefully Treliving continues to do more of the same.
Contrast it to what the Oilers did. I am guessing they were in the same boat as the Flames coming out of the late 90's and into the early 2000's. I don't think they have successfully implemented a drafting philosophy, hired competent scouts, or implemented a successful development program. The Flames started this under Sutter successfully, Feaster continued it, and I hope (and would bet) that Treliving further refines it during his tenure. It is partially why Calgary's current rebuild is going along much more successfully thus far than Edmonton's has, and it is a HUGE reason why Edmonton's has failed miserably.
But yes, Sutter 'sucked at drafting' is a much easier and much more concise way of looking at it.