Quote:
Originally Posted by ComixZone
Are there? Most of the middling teams don’t seem content with being a middling team. The Flames on the other hand have emphatically stated that they believe in being middling. John Bean going out there and acting the way he did when they announced Maloney was just Lowe’s “I know a thing or two about winning” rant, but a decade+ later.
That Bean rant shouldn’t be forgotten. The fact that there’s been no real changes to the organization since then is sad. Promoting your AGM and Assistant Coach is doing pretty much everything possible to maintain status quo.
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The Flames trade years off from being a middling team to looking like a team on the cusp. Last year it was clear that between Sutter and Treliving that this was not a fun place to be and the differing philosophies, and pressure to integrate a new group at the top of the food chain resulted in a massively disappointing season. This was a team and roster who had 3 key cogs have night late seasons. Mangiapane was injured early and struggled to get as many points last year as he had goals the year before. Huberdeau suffered the most having the biggest drop off in a single year of any player. Markstrom went from an elite goalie in one year to a below average starter last year.
This org has been developing and grooming Conroy and Huska to eventually be promoted from within. Huska gets a lot of credit for the PK which had been a constant positive for the Flames over the past several years. Conroy is loved by the players and has found a few gems through his scouting. Promoting those guys is not locking in more mediocrity. Bean and Maloney commented that they felt this was a good team that underachieved and based on how close they got with their best players struggling it is a believable hypothesis. The fact they have 2 massive 8 year deals kicking in, and many other long term deals on the books it makes sense to run it back rather than force a blow up when the pieces are valued at their lowest.
If multiple UFA’s are walked for nothing, if the current signed players can’t bounce back, and if our prospects who will be given a chance fail then I think it is time to talk about how this org blew it with the decisions they made since Tree walked on them.