Listen to most episodes and this one today was probably the best so far. I tend to agree with Pinder that if they're serious about winning and want to commit to a rebuild right now it actually might turn around pretty quick. I also agree with him that you cannot go into next year and try to win with Sutter. If they don't want to start tearing it down, fine, Sutter's gotta go.
Personally I thought when Gaudreau left it was a great time to rebuild. An absolute monster of a draft with a generational talent at #1, and the entire top 10 looks fantastic. Even if you don't land Bedard they would have started year 1 of the rebuild off with a really nice pick. This team isn't going to beat McDavid and Draisaitl. Sorry. Rag on their defence all you want but those guys absolutely torch us and are 100% better than anything we've had since Iginla. It's also tough to compete with places like Vegas and Los Angeles in the trade and free agency market. Calgary is, unfortunately, a market that has to build through the draft. So build through the draft.
I admire that they tried. I do. And I applauded it in the offseason. But there is nothing wrong with saying "you know what? We gambled, thought it was a good gamble, but we were wrong. Let's right this ship before it sinks".
If they admit they were wrong and do the right thing they could get some really nice pieces back over the next few years for Lindholm, Markstrom, Backlund, Hanifin, Zadorov, sell high on Toffoli, and Tanev. All these guys have expiring contracts soon, and I think you could still find a home for Markstrom despite his poor start. They probably won't pick in the top 10 if they start now but they'd still get a solid prospect at 11-13.
Unfortunately we're probably stuck with Huberdeau, and he wouldn't be happy with a rebuild, but you know what? That's on him. If he was producing even at an 85-90 point pace (which is a 30 point drop in production) I don't think we're having this conversation.
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