Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathgod
30+ years of risk taking and moving out first rounders like they're candy... hasn't exactly resulted in much winning, now has it? Hopefully you understand why fans are gunshy at the idea of trading away a first rounder in a deep draft for a very risky player.
If anything, the successes that the Flames have enjoyed in recent years have been the result of their drafting. Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, Mangiapane, Dube, Andersson, Lindholm (acquired in Fox trade), Ruzicka, Pelletier, Zary.
Winning teams are built through the draft. See Tampa, Colorado, etc.
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I absolutely agree that winning is done through the draft, with the foundation being laid at the top-end of the draft. I’ve long beaten the drum that this team should rebuild through the top-end of the draft - but at some point you have to realize they aren’t going to anytime soon. They just hard-pivoted away from homegrown talent to a group of freshly helicoptered in talent grown elsewhere.
The Flames are old, particularly up-front at the top of the forward group.
Huberdeau - 29
Lindholm - 28
Kadri - 32
Toffoli - 30
One of the reasons why I’m a proponent of trading a 1st, or even multiple 1sts is so that they make the best use of their current roster - but then also push themselves closer to that cliff of oblivion that will be set upon us by Father Time.
Go all in. Spend the living hell out of the future - because ultimately it will force this team to bottom out given the ages at the top of their forward group. There is a reckoning coming to the roster, either realize it harshly and then improve or continue to just hedge and maintain mediocrity. They should have rebuilt after Gaudreau and Tkachuk left, but they didn’t - so now what to do? Accept the bubble position where we’ll sit around 8th in the West for the next few years before falling out and still believing they can make it - or go hard at it right now, and then if you fail make a hard direction change out of necessity.
Shoot your shot. Once the chamber is empty, rebuild through the top of the draft.