The last 2 years have been pretty much a kick in the nuts to Flames fans. From seeing our franchise players leave to replacing them with free agents and trade acquisitions that have contracts that are either already awful or almost certainly will become difficult in the future. The fact that Treliving had to trade a future 1st round pick to fit those guys in stings. To then see 5 of the 7 pending free agents refuse whatever extension was offered and to enter a rebuild anyway is brutal. Instead of Tkachuk being used for futures and seeing the returns a lot of players got at the 2023 trade deadline the Flames missed the boat. They could be entering their second draft with multiple 1sts and top 10 pick but now they enter their first with 7 more years of Huberdeau at $10.5M, and the potential to lose a top 10 pick to the Habs next year all so we can have a 34 year old making $7M for the next 5 years.
Such a horrible spot and it is all thanks to Treliving. Conroy is doing an admirable job of getting things back on the rails but we are several years from the playoffs unless something unforeseen happens which would inevitably would derail this rebuild and speed things up and lead to another run of mediocrity
All this while the Oilers look like they are going to win a cup or more while potentially keeping McDavid and Draisaitl throughout their careers, the Canucks have become relevant again and Treliving has landed the highest profile GM job in the league and was able to re-sign the franchise players on that team who could breakout and go on a run in the next 1-3 years.
Truly is a dark timeline. At least it looks like the new arena is coming and the threat of relocation isn’t looming to make this truly the darkest to timelines for the Flames. I just personally hope we are not entering a Buffalo/Ottawa/Columbus period of time
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