Quote:
Originally Posted by Hockey-and_stuff
Oh yeah, they should absolutely be ahead of us since they had two extra years to stockpile young talent and assets.
To me, the Flames need to build up high end talent in the 18-22 year old range and the 22-26 year old range.
That should be who you're ready to offer long term deals and money too.
It's harsh and I'm painting with broad strokes here but anyone 27 and older shouldn't be looked at as a part of the contention window. They should be played in key roles to increase their value then sold off as their contracts expire, with the idea that the elite talent you acquire at the top of the draft can develop and replace these aging players in the next 4-6 years.
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It is a sign that the flames likely have a long way to go in the rebuild… while the young guys (Zary, Honzek, Wolf, Klapka, Coronato) have looked good, most of the scoring and key roles up front have come from the veterans still (Kadri, Backlund, Mantha, Kuzmenko, Coleman, Huberdeau). When those veterans are more of the complimentary players and the younger guys make up most of the top 6 forwards and top four defencemen, the team will be on their way out of the rebuild.
The rebuild could still happen faster than some think though… it requires the flames to hit big on their next two drafts IMO. No small task but if they get a #1 and a #2 center out of the next two drafts, they could be looking ready to start to get better.
Zary-xxxx-Coronato
Honzek-xxxx-Sharangovich
Huberdeau-Posposil-Gridin
Klapka-Kadri/Backlund-xxxx
That’s just a very rough outline of what the team could be in 3 years… with the missing spots filled with (potentially) guys drafted in 2025 and 2026. Obviously that won’t be what it is… guys will get traded or just won’t develop how we all hope. But there is the potential for things to work out this way as the forward line up. It assumes the vets with expiring deals are not re-signed (except potentially Backlund) and the vets with long contracts are not traded (Huberdeau, Kadri and Sharangovich).