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Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
I slightly disagree here. You have the benefit of hindsight but it's not that simple at the time.
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You think it's hindsight but it's the way it was at the time.
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The Flames were coming off a 1st place finish in the Western Conference. Sure they struggled in the playoffs but you can't ignore that it was a strong regular season last year.
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The playoff collapse against Colorado after such an impressive regular season should've been the catalyst for major change. Brodie was at peak value and Hamonic had had a healthy season. The absolute priority of the offseason was to clear the cap space necessary to sign Tkachuk and Mangiapane while making a decision on Hamonic or Brodie.
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You can't go into complete sellers mode in the offseason coming out of a 1st place finish just because it's a UFA. If the best offer in the offseason was a 2nd round or 3rd rounder for one of those two guys then I don't think you make the deal since you're better off seeing if the team can repeat the performance from the year before.
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Only to a flames fan is moving a pending free agent 'full sellers mode'. If the freakin' cup winner can trade a pending RFA for cost certainty moving forward then so can the single playoff win Flames team for EITHER guy who is a pending UFA.
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Sure if a deal like the Kadri deal or a first is on the table then you should make that trade, but I doubt they had a first on the table for Brodie/Hamonic at that point of the offseason.
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And yet, trades were made. Trades for defensemen, even. PK Subban was traded, Justin Braun was traded, Neal Pionk was traded, Jacob Trouba was traded, Matta was traded, Colin Miller was traded...
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The unfortunate thing is the Flames probably should have sold on these guys at the deadline but some things prevented that.
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You can do trades at time, actually, you don't need to wait until the deadline.
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Hamonic was injured with no time table to return, at that point he was probably unmovable.
Brodie had his heart episode which limited a lot of his season and potentially limited his value so that doesn't help.
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So, both of these problems don't exist if the Flames act prudently and do deals when the rest of the league is doing deals. The Flames put themselves in that position, it wasn't an accident.
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Plus with Valimaki, Hamonic, and Giordano all injured at the deadline you actually don't have enough bodies at the deadline to sell Brodie and still at least remain somewhat competitive.
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A situation the team should not have been in in the first place.
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We were already dressing subpar d-men at that point. I still don't agree with digging a bigger asset hole by adding both Forbort and Gustaffsson. But appreciate there were some other factors that prevented them from moving these guys.
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Compounding the problem that should have been dealt with in June or July by trading even more assets for more expiring defender contracts.
You think these are mitigating factors, I'm saying these are exacerbating factors.
Managerial incompetence made a bad situation worse by putting off a decision until it was made for them.
That's the worst kind of decision making.