I don’t think they need to sacrifice the season but more so just manage their assets appropriately. I felt like this was a failure of Treliving and our prospect base is fairly average but potentially could be on the the top pools in the league depending on how Conroy handles these pending UFA’s.
If the best deals on the table for Lindholm/Hanifin is futures based the Flames need to make those deals. More often than not when high end players are available young assets and cap space are the best assets a team can have. We saw it first hand 8 years ago when the Flames made a deal to land Hamilton with picks and had the space to give him a long term deal.
The Flames didn’t play well enough to keep all chips in the middle this season. They need to manage their assets accordingly to give them flexibility to remain competitive in the short and long term. It does mean that their roster next year on paper will be worse but not a bottom feeder. A new voice in Huska, a new style of play, bounce backs from Huby/Marky, injection of youth with Pelletier/Zary/Coronato/Wolf all pushing for spots could result in a similar or better season next year. Add some more pieces from these trades I am not convinced the Flames are screwed if they move some UFA’s.
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