Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Bolling and Raymond was not the difference between making the playoffs and finishing bottom-three.
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Of course not, because the year before they had traded futures for the likes of Russell, Colborne and Galiardi while the year before that they had signed Hudler and Wideman to try and stay competitive with Iginla for that last hurray.
So instead of trading Iginla at the start of 2012 and doing a rebuild, they kept him, bolstered the team, still sucked but not enough to draft MacKinnon or Barkov (though lucky that they did get a quality player in Monahan).
And now even after Iginla's departure, and unlike the Avalanche when they lost Sakic or the Lightning when they lost Richards, because the Flames had Wideman and Hudler in 2014, they are bad but not bad enough to get Draisaitl or Ekblad.
But now Monahan has had a solid rookie year, Gaudreau's left college, they could be better a team despite losing Cammalleri. Certainly not a favourite, but just good enough that if you supplement them with Hiller, Raymond, Engelland and Bollig that they could squeak into the playoffs apparently.
Oh, and they do! So no turning back now. Can't afford to have that first round pick take time to develop, so trade it for an established player in Hamilton instead of drafting Barzal and having him develop in the WHL for a year.
And Hamilton flourishes with the Flames in his first year - just enough to keep them from bottoming out and going for a player like Matthews when they move Hudler at the deadline. (Thank #### for the Canucks or else the Flames could be stuck with Juolevi or something instead of Tkachuk from this draft).
Time to go for it now certainly. Brouwer? Don't mind if I do. Hey team is doing alright, again not a favourite at all, but let's trade some futures for Michael Stone. Oh, got swept?
Well that's fine since Tkachuk kicked ass. So let's make a splash and trade a 1st+ for Hamonic. Mike Smith for a draft pick? Bargain!
Missed the playoffs and no first round pick? Well things are about to get real...real deal that is. Bring in Neal surely he will be the one to bring the Flames over the edge.
It's been 15 years of this. It wasn't that Hiller, Engelland, Bollig and Raymond were the difference between the playoffs and McDavid, it was that the Flames were determined to fight for the playoffs instead of not signing those guys and trading Hudler, Russell and friends and bottoming out (huge credit for trading Glencross that year though).