There are two main reasons why teams do not go the rebuild route:
1) Money - as much as we all want a rebuild, it often doesn't happen simply because less people end up buying tickets.
2) Who owns these teams? Rich billionaires. The only thing that they can't afford in life is time - they are usually in the twilight of their lives, and having 2-5 years of 'losing' isn't very palatable to them when perhaps they won't be around to reap the rewards of that losing.
I don't, however, think the ownership group is THAT resistant to a rebuild. Remember Maloney's presser in which he talked about the 'options' for the Tkachuk trade. One of them was a rebuild. Had Zito not provided an attractive enough package for Tkachuk, this team might very well have been in the midst of a rebuild today.
It is surprising to read the tweet posted by Hockey_Ninja above I would have guessed Hanifin would have been the most likely to re-sign given that he seemed happy. I wonder if the contract demands are too high? He is young enough to re-sign even through a rebuild in my opinion.
Calgary essentially 'bottomed-out' for their rebuild in 2012-13. They aren't bottoming out right now. Either way, I doubt that a rebuild is in the cards at this point, but one would assume that there is a 'plan B' on the table in which the Flames do enter into a rebuild or a 'significant retool' if they end up having to trade too many of the upcoming UFA class. We should all know the direction of this team by the first day of the draft, I would guess.
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