Quote:
Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald
You're comparing current state (2024) instead of the state the team was in when Conroy took it over (2023). Conroy has done a full year's work to get to this current state and has done so with purpose. Those "tons of picks" are a result of Conroy moving his UFAs, not what he was left with. Without those moves we are weak in the pick department. Conroy deserves a ton of credit for his moves so far and what he has accomplished in his first year of managing the team. This started a year ago which is why the fair comparison is a year ago.
People are also grossly underselling the enthusiasm around that 2013 team and the youth we had coming in back then. Monahan, Brodie, Colborne, and Bouma were just breaking in. We had exceptionally high hopes for Baertschi, Wotherspoon, Granlund, Horak, Ortio, Reinhart, Agostino, Knight, Arnold, and Gaudreau, who were all knocking at the door. Hindsight should provide a warning that many of the young players we think are going to be front and center to this team in the long-term are never going to be NHL players of note.
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Going back to your last post, Treleving took over in 2014, not 2013. Feaster and Burke had done all the heavy lifting during the clean-out years of 2012 and 2013 and created a pretty blank slate for Treleving to step into in 2014. Conroy had to do all the initial heavy lifting during his clean out year (2023).
End of season 2013 didn't have Monahan (Poirier, Klimchuk or Eric Roy, who I was jazzed about). It had Gaudreau, (who was still a big question mark), Baertschi, Granlund, Jankowski and Gillies to be excited about. And other than Baertschi, the rest of the prospect base (including Granlund, Jankowski and Gillies) were Bs and even C+ -- despite our excitement at the time.
Depending on the cut off, I'd take end of 2023 over end of 2013. Calgary had so much more talent available to trade to kick start the rebuild, which Conroy has done well, and so many more prospects with collectively better potential.
If we compare pre-draft 2014 to pre-draft 2024, I'd swing to 2014, because Calgary had Monahan, Poirier, Klimchuk, a top 5 pick AND Johnny Fricken Gaudreau scored in his first NHL game which obviously meant he really was going to be a superstar.
But if we're shifting goal posts, pre draft 2014 (after year one of the rebuild) should be compared to pre-draft 2025 (after year one of the rebuild, as management was still expecting to compete this year). And pre-draft 2025 is looking pretty interesting with all the picks we have and the potential for another high draft pick next year.