Quote:
Originally Posted by TheScorpion
I love trades. Posting ideas in the trade thread is one of my favourite things to do. It's always cool to debate new line combinations or debate the best fits at a certain position.
Vegas fans get to talk about how Mark Stone will fit in their lineup. Dallas hockey fans will debate how Mats Zuccarello will change their lines once he returns. Winnipeg can talk about Kevin Hayes and Nashville can go nuts over Simmonds and that other guy they got, I can't even remember his name.
Congratulations to those teams. They paid assets to improve this year. They did so out of necessity.
The Calgary Flames did not select in the first round in the 2018 NHL draft, missing out on guys like Noah Dobson and Joel Farabee and K'Andre Miller because of it. They have Travis Hamonic, who's a very good player, but to maintain a window, teams always need to be adding to their lineups with an eye to the future.
Trading a second-rounder for a guy like Gustav Nyquist is a shiny move for San Jose, but it's also the move of a team looking solely towards the present. With guys like Erik Karlsson and Joe Pavelski expiring after the year, they have to be all-in. Columbus and Nashville are operating under similar mindsets.
Those teams are adding because they have teams to catch. And this is where the Flames come in. Because before you call for Treliving to be fired and for Valimaki or Kylington to be traded in the summer for more forwards, just remember this...
...and think, are the Flames the team that needs to catch up, or is it everybody else?
The Flames are the best team in the West, and they're primed to add yet another excellent prospect with their first-rounder this summer. |
Love the optimism but let's not go all blue sky on how the Flames are way out in front of everyone else and they "are chasing us". These teams aren't all thinking "well, the cup goes through Calgary, so we need to get better to compete".
I guarantee you the guys in the San Jose locker room don't believe that.
We didn't make a move today and I am fine with that. But we are the only team that didn't and the others got better. When you look at it on paper, that is a lot of fire power that just moved into the top 5 seeds in the west. And, Stone being traded in our division is not optimal. The day could have been better for sure.
It is what it is. We are hosting our first playoff series since '05-'06 and have a ton of organizational depth and a very manageable cap situation going forward.