Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
Is there some award to be won for signing free agents or spending to the cap with futility that I don't know about?
Everyone watching these games is thinking to themselves that this team is replacing Gaudreau with Hall away from what exactly?
Surely an 8 million dollar Taylor Hall and a 38 year old Giordano is what's going to stir the drink and bring the Flames to the promised land? It's definitely a great idea to build a team around two left wingers, right?
Maybe they need more motivational speakers for pre-game? Do some of you guys even read your own posts after you click submit?
A hard cap league is a zero sum game. You're not going to win a goddamned thing when you're paying Michael Stone 2 million dollars to fart into the same cushion for 70 games. When your big roster shakeup is putting in Rinaldo, it's a sign you're a dog#### organization that has no other option but to sign a PTO to fill out the roster.
Trusting the guy who's major accomplishments the last 3 sesaons for this organization hs been to lose trades and sign bad free agent deals to trade away Gaudreau and sign Hall?
Lord Almighty!
Whether the Flames win this series against a backup goalie or not, is anyone really in doubt on the trajectory of this group and the people running it?
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If we can gain a top line LW for nothing other than cap-space, it's a win.
So, assume we Trade Gaudreau to New Jersey for 7th overall and manage to draft Jamie Drysdale. He'd be instantly be on the fast track to being our best defence, and give us a young top four of:
Hanifin - Andersson
Valimaki - Drysdale
with this as our bottom two:
Giordano - ?
That's pretty dang solid - and yeah, perhaps Drysdale takes a year before jumping to the pros - but still, it sets the team up nicely.
Taylor replaces Gaudreau (Hall is a better all around 5 on 5 player), so I also think that is an improvement.
Bennett and Dube were also emerging in these playoffs - Bennett as a centre, that's huge. Re-work the forward group:
Tkachuk - Monahan - Lindholm --> that's pretty good 5 on 5, I'd argue.
Hall - Bennett - Dube --> this could be dynamite.
Mangiapne - Backlund - ? --> these two work well together
Lucic - Ryan - ? --> these two work well together
and lastly? Go out and pay Robin Lehner and Peter Laviolette.
That's the type of off-season I'd dream of. It re-shapes the culture pretty significantly and it sends a clear message to the team that you have to perform.
Throw away everything else though and just focus on Johnny out for assets, Hall in for cap. Our LW position improves (particularly in the playoffs), and we gain some prime assets from Johnny's departure. That's brilliant.
...barring Laviolette, Lehner and Hall all signing here though (dream upon dream upon dream)? Yeah, we're kinda boned.