Quote:
Originally Posted by traptor
What ifs are obviously a fools errand, but I do feel like we had the players to be a consistent contender for a long if the "band" stayed together.
Some form of:
Jg - lindholm - monahan
Zary - bennett - chucky
Mang - backs - coleman
Hanifin - rasmus
Kylington - tanev
Zadorov
Marky
Vladar
Could be a contender. Really unfortunate how badly it was managed.
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You can’t say something was badly managed when big pieces of your hypothetical roster (Lindholm, Hanifin) were excellent asset management.
The roster wasn’t optimally managed, and the hope is that Conroy has learned from Treliving’s mistakes.
Or maybe 1/2 of Treliving’s mistakes were Murray Edward’s decisions? Who knows.
Either way, to me the biggest close call to have a legit contending roster was when the Flames were 1 pick away from selecting Kaprizov in 2015, until Minnesota grabbed him right before their selection.
So you could add that to the coulda/woulda/shoulda options, or swap out him for Kylington as they likely would have selected him if they had the 2 3rds they traded to select Oliver.
Kirill would give more options for Gaudreau, create a legit secondary option for zone entry on the power play & make them exponentially more dynamic.
But… that’s how close it is.