[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

I think the better phrasing of this is that you can't replace Gaudreau. It's not possible. No one is trading a player of his quality at this stage, and no one in free agency is close to as good as he is. The Flames need to sign Gaudreau. If they can't, and don't take a hard pivot to a rebuild - I think they're just wasting time. They won't be good enough to do anything meaningful. Do I think they'll rebuild? No.

This also isn't a Flames exclusive problem. What other team with a player of his quality would be okay with just having them walk away for nothing? The impact is crippling. I know people will argue Tavares - but Tavares isn't on Johnny's level - and even him leaving has led to the Islanders becoming one of the worst teams in the league (they fought it off a bit by being the best coached team in the league though, that's for sure - but you just can't overcome the lack of talent). I'd say Panarin is the closest in recent years and...yeah, look at Columbus. He left, and everything started unraveling. They did their best to try and keep the ball moving forward but you just can't recover from losing players THAT good.

The Islanders are not one of the worst teams in the league. They made the conference finals twice without Tavares. Last year was a disaster, not helped by a massive road trip to start the year, but even then they finished 20th.

Edit: And I doubt the Islanders are thinking re-build either.