Quote:
Originally Posted by YyjFlames
That's the point, though. Flames aren't dragging their feet on the rebuild, they're slowly falling into it. Last year, they canned Sutter, Treleving moved on, they hired a new, more positive coaching regime and they replaced a 30 goal scorer for a 30 goal scorer. They wanted to remain competitive, but the team's early results showed them (and the expiring UFAs) that they weren't going to win with that roster and they shifted to a "retool" philosophy.
This next year might push them into a full rebuild, just like 2021/22 in San Jose, when the team still sucks and if the rest of the leadership group demands out rather than wait for the retool. Our Smith/Celebrini comes in 2026 and 2027 if we end up on this path.
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It's still a bit early to say this though, this summer will tell us a lot on how committed this franchise is to a rebuild similar to SJ has done. They are positioned well to get their but might also look at this young team as being more ready to compete then they are.
SJ was said to be forced into their rebuild. My point is they had a core together for much much longer than we did and had much deeper runs in the playoffs than we did and really the rebuild might have only took 1 maybe 2 years for their ownership to except they need to move on from that core group that brought many years sucess to that team. Joe Thornton probably was an easy decision but moving on from Pavelski who was and is still good was a sign they were rebuilding. Burns and Karlsson contract blocked them from getting on the rebuild earlier, but they got those deals done and have since added very high-end pieces once they could find those deals.