[Igottago]

Originally Posted by CGY12

This is all fine and dandy had the man in charge who operates a particular way shown any signs of improvement in his 6 year tenure. He hasn't proved anything at the NHL level. This feeling of saying anything remotely negative about anybody is exactly the mediocre culture the Flames have built.

Also where did I say rip the players or tip his hand? I said "acknowledgement". As the head of the front office, it is not only you're responsibility to build a contending team, but also be the speaking voice to the fans.

Players want to play for a WINNER first and foremost. If the Flames had a winning culture and put that above anything else, players are going to come. They aren't going to care that the GM, again "acknowledged", his teams and top players failures.

People are way to soft these days.

The Flames are a class organization in a lot of ways but I do think they consistently fall short of expectations, because they kind of don't have any. Iginla was traded in 2013 and now 7 years on into "the rebuild" you never really hear any expectations that the rebuild was actually supposed to yield results.

Maybe its just modern times but every reaction now is ho hum, let's see how it goes next time. At least in the Sutter era there was usually more palpable disappointment when the team failed. The goal for any NHL team ad its management team should be pretty obvious -- become a contender and win a championship (or more). That's all there is to this entire enterprise. I never hear management talk about how they think the rebuild is going, where they think they are or should be, and how they get to the end result that this is all about. Maybe 30 years of first rounds exits is just so deeply engrained in the organization but it would be refreshing to hear that these results actually bother somebody. It has nothing to do with being dramatic in the media or embarrassing players -- but the simple acknowledgment that they fell way short (again) and intend to do something about it because they expect results.