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 know you don't like extreme opinions, and I see the view that there was "no doubt" the Flames made a "massive mistake" as an example. That is closer to hyperbole and subjectivity than rational objectivity IMO.
Iginla is a franchise icon. Can you think of other organizations that have traded their best player in history at or near their peak in order to build a long term contender?
I just can't think of where it happens in actual fact. Gretzky? That's not why that trade was made. Phil Esposito? Maybe that's an example, but he also wanted out given his reducing role. Thornton? He was unhappy in Boston and there were contract issues.
If it was such a massive mistake, maybe there are some obvious examples of winning franchises that have been built this way that I'm just not thinking of.
I don't see the current team following this model. As a bubble team this team, you have Brodie and Hamonic as expiring assets. Are there plans to trade Backlund or Gio while they still have value?
Anyway I don't see the debate as personal or mean spirited. I have tried to present some raw data but understand that people can apply their own filters to it.