Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
So your revisionist argument is that by signing Gaudreau the Flames screwed the franchise and missed out on McDavid?
There are reaches...and there is that. Possible the most crazy one I've ever read here.
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No, and that is far from revisionist. The 2014-15 Flames were absolutely considered a McDavid frontrunner, and with Eichel as the consolation prize it was an ideal year to be bad. Gaudreau wasn't the only reason they had an unlikely year... Wideman, Hartley, Bouma, Hiller, Hudler... a lot of things went spectacularly right.
But had we added even Eichel in the draft that year, and then not proceeded to botch the Bennett situation, the last decade likely looks very different. Eichel - Bennett - Backlund down the middle, with Gaudreau on the wings.
Instead the domino effect of 2015 resulted in middling results even in years like 2019 and 2022 when the supporting cast was about as deep as it could be