Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
Well first off I hope they don't see 29 years as something they need to make up for as that sounds Vancouver-ish.
They spent assets to build what looks like a very good top six, and a very good top four blueline.
Other assets went to find a goaltender that can carry the mail until their goalie prospects are ready.
The issue now is the bottom half of the forward group primarily. Since they have a second core of blueliners coming along I see that as the natural progression piece of assets to gain balance.
Centers and blueliners always have more value than wingers, and the Flames are missing wingers.
It's not a baby with the bath water thing. It's a progression.
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What is the point of trading for an all-star goalie if that guy is going to help you barely scrape into the playoffs because the rest of the roster is full of holes?
Sounds like textbook example of bad pro-scouting to go all in on a roster with essentially no pedigree of success up to that point.
Why do you need a goalie to carry the mail at all at this point unless you're trying to make the playoffs and win-now? They didn't pay a premium to acquire smith and have arizona retain salary so that the young prospects would know what it feels like to play with a great goalie behind them, they did it with the expectation this would be a 100 point team and a playoff challenger. It's not like Rasmus and Kylington are in the lineup right now and Smith is there to help make up for it. Smith is making up for TJ Brodie and Mark Stone. He's making up for Troy Brouwer and Garnet Hathaway.
If the Flames defensive prospects are so great why would you put roadblocks in front of them of established NHL guys all under contract for the next 3+ years if you were trying to slowly progress into a winner instead of going all in? If the idea is to then trade those valuable defensive prospects for forward help, is the insinuation that the forward help will also be in the form of an ELC prospect, or are we suggesting the Flames will trade valuable ELC prospects who are NHL ready for existing, established NHL scorers under contract in the 3-7 million range? If that's the case, how does the team compete under the salary cap with so many mid-to-high contracts?
The trade of Jones for Johansen sure looks great, except the predators added 5 million dollars in salary for a year before having to re-sign johansen to 8 per. How do the Flames fit that into their cap structure if it comes to dealing Fox for some top player?
Look at the Ducks. The only way they have been able to stay competitive over the years has been an abundance of ELC contracts surrounding their premium paid core group. How do the Flames add a 6 million dollar winger if they are paying Stone 3.6 to play on the bottom line. "Oh, well, they trade him and promote a defender from their stable of great defensive prospects." Well, I was under the impression they just traded a defender for scoring help.
Standing pat is standing pat. Trading draft picks consistently for roster players is actually making the organizational problems WORSE.
A progression is continually building on something, not trying to jump start it on a yearly basis with short term gain long term pain moves. To me, that sounds like the opposite of progression and sounds more like undercutting.
We're 12 years into the cap era, this should be obvious by now. You don't need to go back 29 years to see the organizational failings; the oilers have more playoff round wins since the lockout than the Flames do. The Arizona Coyotes have 1 more playoff series win than the Flames do and they've made the playoffs just 3 times in the last 12 years. The islanders have won as many playoff rounds as the flames since the cap era began.
Since the cap was instituted the Flames have just 4 more post season games played than the freakin' oilers. The oilers have 7 more playoff wins than Calgary during that time. Some goof will say "but the pronger run", well, remove the flames 2004 run from their history and see just how abjectly terrible that makes the organization look.
Since the lockout began, the flames are 23rd in the whole league in Playoff wins and 22nd in playoff games played.
At what point do the owners of this team look at their leadership and decide "maybe trading draft picks every single year is a bad idea"? When do Flames fans start to realize that maybe the koolaid is clouding their judgement on just where this franchise is and how it operates?