Quote:
Originally Posted by Badgers Nose
What's frustrating is that the cap era levelled the playing field and we still can't get out of this 'average team 9/10 seasons with an occasional burst of greatness' rut.
The mediocrity was easy to understand when big teams could outspend the Flames and lure players away to more cosmopolitan cities.
IMO the problem with the Flames is they never want to admit when they are bad and that prevents them form making the hard choices. Other teams are ruthless with pending free agents and post apex players. Some teams are cynical enough to tank for a shot at great players.
Flames are not likely to change and neither will the results.
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For me it's the ruthless part where the Flames fail. I think rebuilding or a retool is what this team needs but normally I fall in the category of someone who thinks tanking is an overrated way to build your team. This for me has been the trend ever since the 2012 lockout. Things have changed and teams who draft top 3 draft picks are turning around and winning the cup like they did starting in 2005 to 2012.
But for me the cap in the NHL is the toughest to manage and it's the hardest cap to fix mistakes. Because of this I believe moving forwards teams are going to struggle to be at the top for more than 5 years in a row. Maybe 1 or 2 teams every 5 years might defy the odds. So there will be ups and downs more so now and if you want to compete regularly you need to be realistic about your team and take advantage of down times to manage your assets. Flames had a down year and all we are complaining about is asset management.
Monahan - why wasn't he shut down earlier?
All other players who were hurt shut them down earlier
Trade a dman before we get to losing our captain for nothing
If this team moved Gio for a bad expiring contract and a pick and we were drafting top 8 right now it would have been a big plus for this franchise moving forward vs where we are at right now.
Ruthless teams probably move Backlund too. If we did and got an ok return maybe we could have taken advantage of some of these teams making trades before the expansion draft protect lists were due?
If the Flames just took advantage of the situation and be realistic on how good this team is they would be way better off.
Imagine having a few extra picks and $26mil in cap space right now. Sure we wouldn't have Gio and Backlund but it's looking like we are not going to have Gio anyways.