Part of me wanted the Flames to rebuild after the loss to Dallas in the summer playoffs after the season ended due to COVID. That feeling was amplified after they got the crap kicked out of them in the shortened Canadian Division season. They would have gotten a massive windfall for their much younger core at that point.
But that shortened season resulted in Sutter being hired as coach and then they put up a 114 point season so I figured I was wrong, but hindsight now shows it might have actually been a better option after all. The 114 point season wasn't enough to keep Johnny and Tkachuk in Calgary and with Huberdeau crashing and burning hard, Lindholm and Hanifin also on the verge of leaving this whole thing is falling apart.
The smartest thing they can do now is trade every pending UFA for as many picks as they can, and any player north of 28 that's worth anything also trade for picks. Utilize cap space by retaining, and/or taking on bad contracts to accumulate even more picks. Draft as many as 30 players combined in 2024/25/26 and hope you get some fortune in the draft lottery as well.
Might have something building by 2027/28 and also have a new state of the art arena to help keep your new core together by then.
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