The other reason that I think you need a rebuild and not a retool is the cap. In a cap world, almost all trades send roughly the same amount of salary each way.
If you're retooling, and you try to move Monahan as an example, you are probably going to get a couple lesser players that add up to $6-7M, plus a prospect or pick or two. In other words, it is very difficult to improve the team.
Conversely, if you commit to a rebuild, you can take on a dead contract. If you do that, you can send Monahan to a contender who is looking for that last piece to psh them over the top. You take a garbage contract off their hands, and you can get some really good value back in the form of picks and prospects.
That is what the Flames need to do - they need to utilize the value they have t=in their core players in order to load up on a bunch of young talent.
The great thing about the Flames roster right now is that they have a bunch of really talented players that are still pretty young and have good cap hits (Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm, Bennett). they also have a couple vets that would be huge help to a contender (Giordano, Backlund).
The best way to maximize the return for these guys is to take crappy contracts back.
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