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Originally Posted by IamNotKenKing
Just a question, but why did you arbitrarily exclude Calgary's first round picks in 2013, 2014 and 2016, but include the others' throughout?
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I excluded top 10 picks for all teams in that view. The point is you need to be able to draft well outside of the top 10 to be able to become an elite team in the NHL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flash Walken
None of those teams went 'scorched earth'. NOT doing so has likely lead them to 'wandering the dessert'. Well, that and terrible owners which seem to go hand in hand.
Look at the disaster in Buffalo:
For example the year they drafted Eichel 2nd overall, they made just 6 picks, and even though they have drafted some good players in the first round, the lack of picks in those years is going to undercut their roster moving forward.
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I disagree on not calling Edmonton or Buffalo scorched earth. Edmonton had 4 first overall picks, they just did a poor job of having any talent to sell to accumulate picks and sold low on a lot of pieces that should have garnered a better return (Petry, Dubnyk for example).
Also you’re cherry picking the Eichel draft for Buffalo. In the four draft stretch from 2012-2015 they had 14 picks in the first two rounds. That’s pretty good pick accumulation (6 extra picks in the top two rounds) they just didn’t draft well.
Overall I think we are saying the same thing though: Accumulate picks, draft well, and keep accumulating more picks.
I think the difference is you think you need to go scorched earth AGAIN to accumulate picks where I think you just need to smartly manage the life span of your assets.
Really the approach I want is the New England Patriots approach to roster building. Accumulate picks, sell high on aging assets, and add to the core by shrewd drafting and trades.
Washington had 10 straight seasons where they didn’t make it out of the second round with Ovechkin and Backstrom on the roster prior to winning the cup. If they were following the advice people want the Flames to take people would have advised they needed to trade Ovechkin and Backstrom, and go scorched earth to rebuild a core that wasn’t working.
Instead they identified the core pieces, moved on from aging declining assets (Mike Green, Troy Brouwer, etc), sold high on some pieces (Varlamov), kept the pieces that were still top end players, and kept adding to that core via strong drafting.
The Flames did go scorched earth after the Iginla era, and do have top picks on this roster. Monahan, Tkachuk, and Bennett are all top 6 picks. People just don’t think they are good enough pieces, when really it’s the poor drafting and lack of upcoming prospects around them that’s the issue.
Where the Flames need to get better, is at strategically moving assets to accumulate more draft capital even in seasons where they are good. For example one of Brodie or Hamonic should have been moved in the past offseason for picks, especially with Valimaki, Kylington, and Andersson in the fold.
They should probably be shopping Backlund right now just because he’s 31 years old and is potentially going to decline in the next two seasons, sell while he still has value. Even Giordano in that same vein is a guy they should probably shop at 36 years old (a bit different as the captain) but a guy who’s best years are behind him.
Thing is it all needs to start with a strong scouting group, draft philosophy, and by not moving picks for short term solutions. It’s easier to move on from those aging veterans when you have pieces to backfill the holes left on their roster, so you need to draft well to kick start the whole thing.