Quote:
Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix
It troubles me that management was so wrong with where this team was at, I think they bought into the hype TBH. I've always liked Hudler but I thought, at the time, that both he and Russell should've been traded at the draft, or at some point in the offseason. I'm hardly a hockey savant, but I just don't see why they couldn't see this. Buy low, sell high and leave emotion at the door. Hudler and Russell were never going to be long term solutions and the team is still building... so why keep them?
I can see why Wideman wasn't traded though. That extra year probably made other teams very nervous considering the first two years of his contract were so bad. It also doesn't help that the Flames don't seem willing to retain salary for some reason. Hard to fault BT for all that, but Russell and Hudler should've been very movable.
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You can't trade away relevant and producing players from a playoff roster at the trade deadline. The message it would have given to the team had that happened last year would have been that this year doesn't matter. We can't win so don't bother trying. Sure, the likelihood of us winning the Cup last year was low, but you cannot trade all players in the last or second last year of their contract. You have to keep some, acknowledging that you just might lose some of them.
29 teams each year are not going to win the Cup, and all 29 cannot be sellers. I know that's not the intent of your post, but you do have to keep some veterans, and acknowledge that you just might lose them some years. That's not necessarily bad asset management, it's just life in the NHL and pro sports.