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Originally Posted by Jay Random
Revisionism at its finest.
Feaster wasn't fired for trading Iginla. He was fired for getting poor value for his top players when the team was trying (you guessed it) to rebuild. Burke specifically criticized him for that.
There was no ‘mad scramble’ to get back into the playoffs. Everyone, including Treliving, expected 2014-15 to be a rebuilding year. In fact, the Flames traded Glencross for picks at the deadline.
It is true that the surprise playoff appearance in 2015 had management thinking they were further along than they were. But that's not the story you're trying to spin here.
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I argue that a building teams go into the off-season and signs Jonas Hiller, Deryk Engelland, and Mason Raymond to market value deals with term. They did that, and made it to the playoffs - and then went even further down that path by making "now" focused moves in 2015. They traded futures for Dougie Hamilton to help compete right away, extended a 32 year old Mark Giordano to a 6 year deal and were trying to make the playoffs.
Burke etc. all very openly said that the draft lottery was not part of a strategy that helps you win. Well, history has shown he was absolutely wrong and the modern NHL had passed him by.
Yeah, Treliving made some proactive in-season moves in this stretch (Glencross, Hudler trades), but he was doing very much what I'd consider a "re-tool on the fly" and not a rebuild. They didn't believe that drafting at the top of the 1st round was critical to building a winner, and Conroy has openly said the same thing (I believe it was in an interview with TSN or the Athletic where he openly acknowledged that yes, it means we won't draft at the top of the draft and we won't get a MacKinnon etc. because of it - I'll look for the interview to reference here)
Conroy seems to want to take the same approach Treliving did, and I imagine it will yield very similar results. The Flames will find some good players in the draft, but they won't acquire the players you need to build a championship and it's due to this philosophy of publically saying they don't want to establish a 'losing culture' despite the fact that they own one of the biggest losing cultures in the NHL.