[Joborule]

Originally Posted by MisterJoji

Re-tool. Which I guess when you look at teams who re-tooled successfully it was more of an accelerated rebuild, which were Boston and St. Louis.

Boston: After a very successful run of a few seasons, including a Stanley Cup win, they missed the playoffs in 2014/15 and 2015/16. At the 2015 draft they traded Hamilton, Lucic and ended up with picks 13, 14 & 15. Although Debrusk is the only pick that has paid dividends so far. The next year they picked a stud in McAvoy at 14. Funny enough, they didn’t really make any other trades in either season where the sold off vets for futures. They kept Bergeron, Marchand, Chara, Krejci and Rask. What really expedited their re-tool was the Pastrnak pick at 25 in 2014. That combined with a young, elite goaltender and a better coach turned them into a legit contender.

St. Louis: Year after year of early playoff exits and missing the playoffs entirely in 2017/18 they reshaped their roster also without selling vets for futures. They held onto Tarasenko, Bouwmeester, Steen, Schwartz, Pietrangelo. The big moves were trades that brought in Brayden Schenn and Ryan O’Reilly. That with good late round drafting Dunn, Parayko, Binnington, etc. Again, the x-factor seemed to be bringing in a new coach and a hot goaltender.

Calgary has players with enough value available to trade for other players who need a change of scenery, like O’Reilly and Schenn. Armstrong shrewdly won those trades. Is Tre the guy to be able to do the same? Monahan, Gaudreau, Gio, Backlund, Lindholm all have solid trade value. Not saying to trade all those guys, but a few could reshape the team enough. What looks like to be a key factor is the head coach. This will be Treliving’s 3rd crack at hiring a head coach, after getting a mulligan for the Peters fiasco. I can’t deal with another shot in the dark for a hidden gem. Back up the truck and give whatever Laviolette, Gallant, Boudreau, etc. want. Combine that with a good FA signing (which is unfortunately one of Tre’s worst attributes) but it could help a lot. I guess them main question is Treliving the guy you want making these moves? He’s been here 6 years and the results have been 1 second round loss, 2 first round exits and 3 missed playoffs altogether. Not great.

I don't like the idea of going after retreads, or putting all your bank in getting the big UFA player whom may not even want to play in Calgary. Trading for older veterans that may need a change of scenery, generally are players that are post apex, and aren't in the peak of their careers anymore. If they were going to bounce back, the team that have them currently generally should recognize that, and won't give them up then.

Calgary is missing impactful first line players. Those are not easy to attain at all, because teams don't give them up unless they're blowing it up themselves. And in that case, they're building towards to the future. I think tonight clearly showed that Flames are in no position to be giving up future assets right now, even if there was a team they could trade with to get that first line talent. Because if we're using Gaudreau and Monahan to do that, then you're making a lateral move at best, and not moving the needle. You might as well just keep the core of the roster the same, and give it a go with another coach then.