The Flames have a mediocre management team and the results are expectedly mediocre. Until that changes, we should not expect anything more or less.
Presuming the Cup is the goal, and that is debatable league-wide, I would argue that Detroit and Dallas are being mismanaged similar to the Flames. Dallas is a closer analog to the Flames, but I would say they've drafted better given similar draft positions. Detroit has actually been in rebuild mode for a decade and keeps acquiring middling talent (Copp, Kubalik, Perron) resulting in them being a bubble team. I think Yzerman this trade deadline is now officially going full rebuild by unloading middling draftees like Bertuzzi and Hronek. They've effectively wasted Larkin's prime years (he's now 26) and they didn't have the core around him needed to compete anyway.
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