[gvitaly]

Here's my take on no hope, and it actually gives me hope that the team will have to go the rebuild route:
First of all we have 4 untradable assets, which might turn into 5 if we extend Lindholm:
Huberdeau, 30, 8 x $10.5M
Kadri, 32, 6 x $7M
Markstrom, 33, 3 x $6M
Coleman, 31, 4 x $4.9M

Markstrom is tied for the 6th highest cap-hit among active goalies. He played like a top 6 goalie for 1 out of 3 seasons for the Flames, in which he still managed to be the worse goalie in each of the playoff series he played.

Huberdeau is the 2nd highest paid LW in the league, and he hasn't looked like a top line forward last year.

The Kadri, and Coleman contracts are not as bad next year, but the length of the contracts, the cap hit, and the NTCs make it unlikely any of them are traded.

The problem is that once a player hits the age of 30, we're no longer talking about getting career years out of them. We hope they could maintain the level of play they were already at. Things could change, but this team needs the Huberdeau that was contending for the Hart, and the Markstrom that was contending for the Vezina in order to be a threat in the west.

This creates a team that will have a hard time managing the cap to stay competitive. The Flames find themselves in a position where instead of a hometown discount we get a hometown overpay. This would likely result in losing a lot of decent players to free agency in the upcoming years. When was the last time we as Flames fans saw hockey players that were actually passionate about being here? The end of season interviews last year were just depressing, and left a bad taste in my mouth, and yet we're coming back with largely the same core.

The building is old, and players don't really want to play in it. For example Sharangovich in a mid-season interview was asked: "which rinks have a reputation of having a bad ice?" He answered politely "that his teammates in NJ say it's Vancouver, and Calgary".

I think that if this team falters this year, it would mean a rebuild. What gives me hope is that the team is in a good position to start one, and I'm glad Tre won't be the one in charge of it. Unfortunately, most of the teams are already set on D, and in goal. Which makes the Hanifin and Vladar situations somewhat awkward to start the season.