Quote:
Originally Posted by Major Major
Fact is, there are optimal times for teams to do scorched Earth rebuilds. For the Flames, it was in Summer of '22.
You can't have a blanket approach that dictates that all middling teams should rebuild because that is the shortest way to become a top team. That just isn't true in many situations such as the soft market conditions the league is currently experiencing. The Flames are much closer to being a good team now than if they traded several UFA's for underwhelming returns. So you recoup some draft capital and sign the guys you can and trust that you can still make good moves to improve your team.
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Was it really an optimal time? It was an extremely soft trade market, and nobody traded away 2023 1st rounders that summer (except Nils Lundkvist for a protected 1st in September).
Burns, Pacioretty, and McDonagh were essentially given away. A pretty good goal scorer in Bjorkstrand only fetched a 3rd+4th.
There were a few hockey trades, but Fiala and DeBrincat were there only real futures trades. Did those teams like any of our guys as much as them?
IMO a futures package for Tkachuk is about all you could really do. And I'm skeptical how good CAR's package actually was considering the guys they already got for free.
And we had a goalie with a NMC who just finished 2nd for the Vezina. Even if you could somehow scorch earth the rest of the team, there was no reason to believe he would be bad enough to get you anywhere near Bedard.