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Originally Posted by Strange Brew
Maybe there is meddling, or was, but I have heard Burke say there is no more of that in Calgary than anywhere else. I really feel BT has a good situation here.
My Dad and I did have beers with Terry Crisp once. Man that guy could cuss. Now just waiting on Textcritic's stories from spending time with James Neal!
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There are benefits to being in Calgary but end of the day this is still a bottom 5 market in the league for desirability. I think Calgary ranks ahead of Edmonton, Winnipeg and maybe a couple of US based markets. The media and fans might not be as tough here as they are in other parts of the country but this is still a fishbowl for NHL players. It is a small market city in freezing cold western Canada with the worst arena in the league.
Flames would have been a nice fit for Tavares and they had the cap to make it work that summer. They don’t even get a meeting. I remember at the STH meeting that summer prior to the draft where they traded Hamilton a fan asked about going after some big name free agents and Treliving said “we can have interest in a player but that player also needs to have interest in coming here”
I am very pumped the Flames convinced Markstrom to sign here. That is the first truly elite free agent we signed since Bouwmeester in my opinion (even Bouw was technically a trade and sign)