[Flamenspiel]

Still, Monahan is a top second line centre, if you trade him you still need to replace that part.
So the answer is to add more high level pieces not swap one for another. The Flames really have wait for a second group of draftees to pan out. Teams like Colorado and Dallas had to dip many times before they built their current lineups.

You need multiple generations of good players. Also stay out of the free agent game until your ready to go for a cup. An example is the Matt Duchene deal, Colorado still kept Landeskog and the other key pieces. They also dropped Barry, who was part of the core.