Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
I have never liked this philosophy. I don't think teams can or should worry too much down the line and need to live in the now when it comes to these things. It's impossible to know who will progress, or who won't. Or who might end up getting traded. I doubt even the best GMs in the leage can predict those things with much accuracy past 2 seasons.
Did Chicago ever worry about paying their best players what they are worth? Never, and they got a few Cups out of it because they adjusted as they went. Sure it meant having to trade good players for futures, but it worked for them (and is still working).
You identify your core, pay them what they are worth, then change the pieces around them as needed until one of them is good enough to replace a core player. Long gone are the days where a good team establishes a roster and holds more than a few of those players for several years straight.
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Chicago is a world away from where we're at. They're able to overpay their stars because they can easily trade their role players for prospects (or dump their contracts) as other teams are interested in their "winning" players. Also, thanks to always being a contender, they're able to fill their roster with veteran free agents for $1M contracts. Until Calgary stats winning consistently, trying to copy Chicago won't work as no one will want our spare parts when we'll need to shed salary (ex: Bouma, Stajan, Raymond, Wideman)...