As for many, my initial reaction was shock/disappointment, which I think is natural when losing two big names that we've seen lots of for two guys who we know little about since they were drafted.
The Flames had a lot of great pieces, but it was pretty clear that they were not on the path to the Cup. I have no idea if we are closer or further away now, but IMO the possibility of finding the right path from here are much, much higher than before the trade.
The D still has the potential to be Cup calibre.
G is still a big Q - it achieves the Crawford/MAF minimum necessary level of 'good enough', but the Flames are nowhere near the Pens/Hawks.
The forward group now has more potential to move towards being a contender, but are still a few miracles away from getting there. Ovy/Kuznets/Backstrom, Crosby/Malkin/Kessel, Kane/Toews/Hossa, Kopitar/Carter/Gaborik, Bergeron/Krejci/Marchand, Datsyuk/Zetterberg/whoever, Getzlaf/Perry/Selanne.
Gaudreau/Monahan/Lindholm - sadly, no indications that this is anywhere near the company of the above. As good as he is, I think Gaudreau needs to be the dynamic #2 (preferably 3) for a team to go all the way. Monahan/Lindholm both look like 2A/1B guys, who might have the potential to fill the 2nd/3rd slash mark, though I think Tkachuk is more likely to get there. Of course, the big missing piece is a 1A elite C at the level of the cup winners above.
The middle 6 is definitely good enough, especially when the likes of Backlund, Tkachuk, Frolik, or Bennett aren't counted on to reach that big 3 level.
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