To the OP question, yes and no. The potential is there, but not yet there to be a serious contender. They really need a goaltender to step up. Gillies injury really hurt the projections of management IMO. I think they had it in their minds that Gillies would have stepped up and taken the job this season, but that lost year of development set him back. Without that core goaltender I don't think the team is in a position to be called a true contender.
To the discussion of the team lacking a game breaker, I think that is a red herring. Not all teams have a Sidney Crosby. The Flames look every bit as good as the Kings or the Blackhawks when it comes to talent up front and on the blue line. The problem is in goal. Personally, I think the fortunes of this team hang on the performance of the goaltending, the emergence of Sam Bennett as a 2nd line center, and a young player like Jankowski or Foo surprising and filling a hole in the lineup, in that order. If those three things happen, this team is a serious contender. If two of them happen, they will be in the mix. If the first one doesn't happen, the other two will be irrelevant as Treliving has blown our expendable assets to build this team and will have to dip into assets he doesn't want to move to fill gaps. At that point we then have to hope that one of the goaltending prospects steps up and pulls a Mike Vernon.
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