Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I'm not going to deny this situation sucks, but a lot of the things people are labelling as "typical Flames" are also typical of most, if not all other franchises.
This one just stings more because it's a big fish. The Flames could've sold low on Gaudreau last summer or signed him to long-term deal everyone would've hated at the time, or sold low after his career year this year as all it would've been for is early negotiating rights (and, clearly, no team needed them).
The UFA list is full of guys teams should've sold high on. Tampa, Florida, New York, Carolina... every contender is guilty of it. And so is every other team. We can excuse Colorado because they won the cup.
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Those are all elite teams or teams on the rise. The Flames have been a very inconsistent team with stretches where they look great and stretches where they look horrible. There were a lot of career years last year which I think had people thinking they were a contender but the truth came out in the playoffs. They are nowhere near a contender even with Johnny. One bad bounce and they were out in the first round to a weak Dallas team. They lost 4 straight to an average Oilers team. It's the typical Flames because you can see their trajectory miles away, years in advance. But they try to squeeze every last drop out of the team trying for some kind of hail mary when they could be proactive and truly setup the team to succeeed in the future. If its strictly a financial thing then sure whatever the owners do whatever they want. But if they truly want to build an elite team they are absolutely horrendous at doing so.