Just thinking about all this talk of where the Flames have drafted, etc got me thinking - we certainly have had our fair share of opinions on GMs and their signings, but why are we not talking about the scouting, both amateur and pro scouting?
Nashville was more than happy to lose Neil to the Knights, and even though they made the finals, they were more than happy to let him go to UFA - looking back now it seems obvious. Why the hell would we sign him to such a ridiculous deal that the only way out of it was to deal with our most hated rivals for their ridiculous deal? Brouwer, Hamonic, there are others too - what did our pro scouting see in some of these guys, salary notwithstanding?
Granted, our amateur scouting has found some gems throughout the years, but boy, some of the picks previous to Tree coming aboard are downright insane. Does that all rest on the GM or the advisor (Burke) or does the amateur scouting guys really think that some of the guys listed here
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/...r00005090.html were really the best picks? Or maybe, in addition to cheaping out on coaches, the team cheaps out on the scouting staff as well - or at the very least maybe trusts them far more than they should, while their 'record' of development should be taking into account as well.
Point is, I'm all for trading Gaudreau, Giordano, whoever for picks, players, whatever - my biggest concern is that the team and whatever metric they follow while doing so, will end up screwing it up anyway.
Oh, and get a damn sports psychologist on board. And if you already have one, get two. Or get another. I don't know. But I do know that I'm tired of the Flames being among the most mentally fragile sports franchises when it comes to adversity and being down a goal. And get the entire team to go to the sessions. Coaches, everyone. Well, maybe not the equipment guys. They seem pretty solid. But everyone else!