Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
I agree they were forced into it in 2013 and were 2 years too late on that but forced or not they decided to turn over the team and aimed to pick high.
I think it is pretty risky to be really bad on purpose for longer than you need to especially in a market like this. Due to some savvy deals the Flames had 5 players picked in the top 6 over 4 drafts and also were fortunate to hit on some mid-late round picks.
When you look at their roster 2/3 of the top line and second line were players drafted by the team with another couple of guys in the bottom 6. 2 of their top 4 D were also drafted by the team and another was a 5th overall pick acquired at 21.
Forced to rebuild or not they took the approach to draft high for a few years and at the time they started to push forward they had Monahan, Gaudreau, Bennett, Hamilton, Tkachuk as their young core. A couple years later they step back and turn a prospect who doesn’t want to sign a 25 year old and 27 year old and turned them into former 5th overalls who were 23 and 21 at the time.
You play in a $hit market like Calgary it gets very risky to try and have an extended period of sucking. Edmonton picked top 10 11 of 13 years and only 7 years after they picked a once in a generation type player do they look like a team that can contend for a little while. Buffalo has picked high for a decade and still not out of the woods yet.
What is a proper rebuild? 5 years of high picks? 10?
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Agree with pretty much all of your post. I don't think for me an "intentional" rebuild = a certain number of years of high picks. I think it's a conscious decision to liquidate valuable assets for futures, and an attempt to maximize value on those assets. So in the 2013 scenario, trying to optimize return on Iginla, before all you can get for him is scraps on the last year of his contract.
In this situation, the Flames have done the opposite with Johnny, they want to retain, and did everything they could to increase the chances of that happening this past year. Kept him on the team, made moves to improve the team, not only because the team was doing good, but likely because they thought that upped the chances to keep him around.
So if Johnny chooses to walk, to the points being made, we now must evaluate post Johnny what do we do? Rebuild or re-tool. To me that won't be about trying to suck for longer, it will be about optimizing return on the good assets we have now (Chucky, who IMO could be re-signed if he wants to and we could still rebuild, but if he wants to is key) with a key target of futures with those moves.