Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
I understand differing views on Treliving but I can’t agree with suggesting the team’s current state is based on a lack of assets when he started six years ago. He had a young team, young star talent, excess draft picks, swimming in cap space and zero initial expectations allowing him to trade players for picks.
IMO he was set up better than any Flame GM in history.
|
Let's take a look at the state of the franchise when he took over in the spring of 2014.
The roster consisted of
- leading scorer Jiri Hudler (54 points - one of the lowest top scorers in the league)
- the second leading scorer was Giordano with 47 points
- The top goal scorer was Mike Cammalleri (26 goals) who was now a free agent
- Other key forwards were Mikael Backlund, Sean Monahan, Matt Stajan, Joe Colborne and Curtis Glencross. You also had the likes of Stempniak, Byron, Jones, and Galiardi. Of the entire forward group on Backlund and Monahan were "pre-apex" though Hudler would go on to have an unreal year
- The D consisted of Gio, Brodie, Russell, Wideman, and Chris Butler
- There was no #1 goalie (Ramo, Ortio, MacDonald, Berra)
So let's agree the big league roster wasn't good.
This is the top 10 prospects in the organization as of spring 2014, according to The Hockey Writers.
1. Johnny
2. Emile Poirier
3. Sven
4. Markus Granlund
5. Bill Arnold
6. Morgan Klimchuk
7. Corban Knight
8. Kenny Agostino
9. John Gillies
10. Joni Ortio
Of the group only one turned into a star, and two more turned into below average NHLers (Sven and Granlund). The rest - nothing there.
So you had a crappy NHL team and a crappy prospect base, except Johnny.
Tree also had a top 5 pick in that draft - used for Sam which everyone thought was the right move. He had two 2nds wasted on Mason Macdonald and Hunter Smith. According to most - Tree had very little, if any say in that draft.
So that's what he had to work with. Pretty poor. Largely because the previous regime got NOTHING out of the core of Iginla, Regehr, Bouwmeester, Langkow, and Kipper.