[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by butterfly

Fast forward to future seasons. The Flames look like they're conference or Cup contenders and have cap space to acquire a deadline piece. Then we sit around and watch as their competitors improve themselves while they can't even appear to do anything. Maybe these future years are seller's markets with few teams already having given up on the season and that's the price for someone like, say, Artturi Lehkonen.

They should have forced Montreal to choose which pick they wanted and retained the flexibility to have options on decision making instead of giving up that ability.

In that scenario, they'd just trade a conditional 2025 or 2026 1st instead if they really coveted a player. I feel like this whole "disastrous" scenario is the epitome of making a mountain out of a mole hill.