[debil]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This. So much this.

I expect that this season's Flames are probably not a better team than either LA or Winnipeg, and are possibly also not better than Dallas and maybe Colorado. But that's not really the point. The point is that they are demonstrably and infinitely better now than they were last year. They are better than the Sharks, and infinitesimally better than the Oilers. They are looking more like an emerging good team than anything—more like a team who WILL put everything together in a couple years' time, once players like Monahan, Gaudreau, Brodie, Bouma, Ferland, and maybe Jooris, Shore and Colborne come more fully into their own; once players like Bennett, Poirier, Ortio, Granlund, Wotherspoon and Morrison become full time NHLers.


I think this is probably a 10–12 place team next year, and I'm okay with that because of what projects forward in 2017 and beyond.

On the other hand oilers were some time ago at the same stage, same leafs. As long as you're not regular playoffs team the rebuild is not done. Improving from bottom team to playoffs borderline is easier than the next step. That's where some teams failed,