Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
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 store, 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.
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I read this as someone who wants to blames a guy that left the organization over nine years ago for the state of the current team. Maybe that's unfair to you, but I believe that's the subtext of what you're saying.
Treliving didn't inherit a solid big league roster and I didn't say that he did. But I think you ignored everything I listed that was good about the situation he stepped into. I stand by my belief that no Flames GM has inherited a better situation than what he did.
I want to evaluate the guy based on what he has, and just as importantly, hasn't done in the last 6 years. If you're saying he had to dig himself out of too big a hole, that's fine. We just see it quite differently.
And I see him doing nothing differently to get any value out of aging players or expiring UFA's, other than when he first took over and they were other people's players.
Is the big league roster better than six years ago? Unequivocal yes from me. Given what he started with and the assets he had to leverage, that is not enough IMO.