Quote:
Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce
I think when you lose two 100+ points players in the same off-season, a rebuild is a reasonable consideration.
Would a rebuild be preferable? Had ownership gone scorched earth, 50% salary retained trades of several players may have paid huge dividends.
Whichever strategy allows the Flames to truly contend for the cup (and not just for the playoffs) is preferable to me. So now that the course is set, Treliving still has a lot of work to, and I am excited to see how it turns out!
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Thanks, good answer and provides the context that I was missing. On the surface it makes sense but the return of a 100+ point forward and a top pairing defenseman for Tkachuk really change the dynamics of the Flames and considering Gaudreau's and Tkachuk's results as leaders with the Flames maybe it was best to move on from them and start in a new direction. I too am excited to see how it turns out.
I just never like the scorched earth rebuild scenario, I don't think it is an actual reasonable solution. There are a lot of luck involved that you have no control over and if I am not mistaken, from those who wanted to go down this path, it involves getting multiple 1st-4th...or 1st-3rd overall draft picks over a number of years.
Since Buffalo and Edmonton are too easy, I will use Florida as an example. A number of times they have had a series of high drafts so I will use the most recent; 2010 - Gudbranson (3rd OA plus 2 other 1st round picks Bjugstad and Howden), 2011 - Huberdeau (3rd OA), 2013 -Barkov (2nd OA), 2014 - Ekblad (1st OA). So 2010 was when they shipped out Horton and Campbell for Wideman and a 1st round and a 3rd round and Ballard and Oreskovich for Bernier, Grabner and a 1st. They also had 3 - 2nd RP in 2010, 2 - 2nd and 4-3rd RP's in 2014. I really can not argue with the draft picks, none of them were off the board picks at the time. So they sent out some decent pieces got numerous 1st to 3rd round picks and have 1 successful season to show for it.
I like this example because Florida was a great team last season but one could argue could take a step back and finish with 15 to 20 points back from last year. In the past 10 years they have made the playoffs 4 times (or 5 times in the last 12 going back to the 2010 draft). But are they a shoo-in to win the Stanley Cup next year or the year after? Are they even a favorite in the East?