Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
Is that their fault though?
We didn't get a first overall pick - we aren't going to have a Matthews or a McDavid.
Tkachuk is a good pick where he's selected.
Monahan was a good pick where he's selected.
Gaudreau is an amazing pick where he's selected.
Lindholm is good value for the trade we got him for.
Mangiapane is a great pick where he was selected.
Backlund has been good value for where he was selected.
The problem isn't these guys. It's that we have never added more top end talent on top of these guys, or haven't added the depth to help support them better.
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Yes in my opinion it is their fault but ultimately the fault is on the GM. Gaudreau was trending to be in the same tier as MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews when you see how he played in his first 2 seasons and especially the World Cup. He legit looked like a franchise player.
Look what happened when those guys looked like superstars. Not only was Gaudreau, Monahan, Lindholm, Tkachuk, Gio putting up 70+ points but that team had plenty of depth that seems to disappear when the top guns also do not score.
I do not think there is a current playoff team where a Flames player would be that teams best player with the exception of Montreal and maybe Nashville.
I honestly don’t care about draft position it is fairly irrelevant when players are getting paid big money deals. End of the day only Lindholm vastly performed his cap hit this year. Johnny and Tkachuk were not terrible value but Monahan certainly was.
I think the fatal flaw of the rebuild was assuming you had the elite talent needed to take a team far. Johnny looked like he could be a truly special player before he signed his deal and then teased it again in 2019. When our top players were top players this was the second best team in the league.
I do agree with you that Hamonic, Elliott, Neal, Brouwer definitely hurt the team but I still think our top players not really being top players on a contender is the reason this rebuild failed.