[bigrangy]

The Flames realistically sit second in their division at the all star break, with a pretty favourable schedule. They’re closer to leading the division than they are to out if the playoffs. They’ve got two prime aged forwards pacing around 100 points, the best top line in the league by a couple metrics, a young defenseman blossoming into an impact guy, and a generally steady, if unremarkable d-core outside of that. The 2nd line is coming alive, showing some strong play and getting rewarded for it of late.

On the downside, the bottom six is a pile of misfit toys and question marks, their actual record is worse than their stats would indicate, the goalies, while good, seem to either shut the other team out or lose, and the team seemingly can’t score on their chances. It looks as if theres several very very good contending teams that are having more success in the standings than the Flames are. The two aforementioned 100 point forwards are both basically UFAs at year end and to keep them probably will require moving a bad contract and/or a guy you don’t want to lose.

So what should the Flames do? Should they buy? Should they sell? Should they go all in? Should they move Gaudreau/Tkachuk and tank?