Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
Scorched earth is doing things with clear intent. Buffalo, New Jersey, and Detroit have gone as close to scorched earth as you can get. LA and Anaheim sort of when scorched earth, but did not fully commit. Arizona has not gone scorched earth, they have gone full nuclear winter, although they could be showing signs of life after years of desolation.
Scorched earth (IMO) is where you make a concerted effort to sell off everything of value and accrue as many picks and prospects as you can, attempting to build critical mass in your organization. A team that fully commits to scorched earth is going to follow this plan.
1) Have multiple 1st round picks in consecutive years and have a big number of picks year-to-year.
Detroit is a great example here. They started what I would consider scorched earth during the 2016 season and started to pile up the picks. Between the 2017 and 2022 drafts they made 7 picks in the 1st round, 12 picks in the 2nd round, 10 picks in the 3rd round, 9 picks in the 4th round, 6 picks in the 5th round, 7 picks in the 6th round, and 8 picks in the 7th round. The Flames made 34 picks total during that time. The Red Wings picked more in the first four rounds of the draft (38) and ended up with 59 picks during this period! The normal number of picks is 42 and Detroit was an astounding +17 selections. That's commitment.
2) Dealing away their best players for the best prospects and picks they can find and supplemental picks where possible. Buffalo has committed to doing this, even though a player pretty much forced their hand. Getting Tuch and Krebs for Eichel and Thompson for O'Reilly. Like Detroit, Buffalo also has been making sure they collect draft picks, picking 5 times in the 1st round and 11 times in the first three rounds in the last two drafts.
3) Staying away from bad contracts with long terms and flipping short-term contracts for assets. This is where Buffalo failed a bit in this process but New Jersey was more successful. The important thing is to make sure you deal away players with value and keep your eye on the prize down the line. This has always been the Flames' biggest weakness, believing that just getting in gives them a real shot at a cup when it normally just ends up in more failure.
That's how I believe scorched earth works and why the Flames have never gone that route.
I don't see this as being scorched earth. I see this as just being a bad team, a la Columbus. The important thing is building and creating critical mass within your organization. This is where Calgary has always been a failure. They rarely draft a lot, and then they rarely develop their players to the point where there is critical mass in the system.
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So for Buffalo and Detroit, what players did they trade away who still had term on their contract? Not counting guys who asked to be dealt. Dealing away pending UFA's is something every team does when they are out of the playoffs.
And if there are examples of that, what position was the team in when they did it? Were they last place in the league bad, or 2 points out of a playoff spot bad.