Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Again it's comments like this that I object to
"BT gets pretty close to a free pass for accelerating the rebuild and the hamonic fiasco"
People have specifically outlined those as negatives on his resume (along with bad UFAs) so it's not like people are giving him a free pass, they just see the positive outweighing the negatives.
And there is no doubt that the organization made a massive mistake in not starting to move out the former core (Iginla, Regehr, Kipper) until it was too late to extract value. I think that was likely an ownership mandate largely based on a desire to win a cup with #12.
But yeah it hurt us big time long-term.
But the lack of scouts and farm team to me are largely an excuse for bad drafting. I'm not one to adhere to any draft rankings but he would have done a lot better if he had taken the Kevin Lowe approach and drafted off the THN draft magazine. Guys like Pelech and Chucko were surprise selections where they were picked.
My belief is that Sutter put constraints around the scouting team in terms of the type of player he wanted in the first round - with too much emphasis on size and not nearly enough on skill.
The draft for me is all about upside and skill.
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I agree with everything you said.
Ownerships unwillingness to enter a rebuild is often understated. It wasn't until Iggy told them he wasn't re-signing that ownership finally gave the ok to trade him and enter a rebuild. By that then, the Flames had little time, compounded by Iggy's veto of trades, the Flames were really hamstrung.
Sutter's draft history, along with his trades of Dion, Stralman, Lydman, Ference, Olli Jokinen, both times and multiple first and second round draft picks, left this team in shambles. Sure his teams weren't horrible, but they eroded any foundation for staying competitive moving forward. He left us with few prospects, little cap, and one of the oldest teams in the NHL.