Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
That is 100% what I'm not getting at.
The Sharks were a well run team for a lot of years. But make no mistake it started with a core of Marleau, Thornton, and Nabokov after they stole Jumbo Joe. Than as you say they supplemented it extremely well for 15 years thru drafting a trades.
But as Marleau and Thornton expired the next wave was not the same calibre of player. So while Hertl, Couture, and Meier are all good players. They're not the same and than they added Karlsson at the expense of Pavelski and not it's pretty ugly there. They doubled down on core of lesser talent with a couple of tough contracts already in place for Burns and Vlassic.
The current Flames talent wise don't have a Marleau, Thornton, Pavelski level core. They're into Huberdeau and Kadri for s lot of money for a lot of term on the back half of their career. If they double down on Anderson, Lindholm, Hanifan and keep other pricey vets too. I think things will be much the same. So they might want to start fixing things now or they could become a 12 year fix too...and without any on ice results leading into it.
You can even look at New Jersey who are finally crawling out of the darkness. After a last hurrah cup run in 2012...they were 9 of 10 years out of the playoffs until showing promise this year. Those post lockout Devils teams were a lot of good but pricey veteran laden teams and they had a lot of cleanup after that.
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I see what you are saying. I don't disagree. Flames aren't close to the sharks. We don't have the core to start down that path.
The sharks are the goal (except the part where they went full Scarface on contracts). Find elite talent and keep adding good prospects as you go.