Does Florida win without Barkov? I doubt it. Does Florida acquire a Barkov-level player without drafting him in the first place? I doubt that too. Maybe they would have been in on the Eichel deal then, but they would also have been forced to trade away a lot of value there, so no guarantee that they would end up with a winning team that way either.
It is even harder for a team like Calgary to build a team of UFAs and from Trades because of the amount of players that simply don't want to play here - they won't sign here as UFAs even with over-payment, and great players often have NTCs that include Calgary. I don't think you can look at how Florida or Vegas or some other teams have built their team and assume that it somehow is a decent enough blueprint to follow - or a decent enough blueprint that it will at least give you an option.
Calgary has one choice and one choice only - they need to draft a core. They might get lucky and be able to trade for another core piece or two in a trade if they target young enough players who aren't eligible for NTCs yet, and they can surely sign decent complimentary support pieces off the UFA bin - as long as they look like they are going to be a winning team.
We can point at the Gaudreau era and say that our best player wasn't drafted in the top 10. That's fair. I loved him and made no secret of it. However, that team never won a cup, and it didn't even come remotely close to winning one either year after year. Had Calgary drafted Eichel in 2015 instead of acquiring Hamilton, and including the trade afterwards in which they ended up with Lindholm and Hanifin, I bet that they would have gotten a lot closer to winning that cup.
Iginla got close, that's for sure, and depending on how you view the "it was in" puck, arguably they did win it.
However, the last time (and only time) that the Flames actually won, they drafted a pretty darn good core and supplemented that with really smart trades. Players drafted from that cup winning team: #1C, #1LW, #1 RW, #1D, #2D, #1G - plus a bunch of other important players. That team doesn't win without smart trades like Gilmour, Mullen, McCrimmon, etc.. They don't win without really smart college grads signed as UFAs either - Otto, Patterson, Macoun, etc. However, there is no way they even get a sniff at the cup without Nieuwendyk, MacInnis, Suter (though he was hurt), Vernon, Roberts, Loob, Hrdina, etc.
Can Calgary draft top-line difference makers outside of the top 10? Yes - it is a resounding yes, actually, but those haven't been enough in the past.
Can Calgary attract top-line difference makers through the UFA route? That's a resounding no. So now you have one arm cut-off in building your team.
Can Calgary trade for top-end players that are available every so often? That's a mixed bag - will they re-sign here to make the cost make sense? Do they have NTCs blocking the trade in the first place? So this time, you don't have an arm cut-off, but you certainly have it tied behind your back too.
Calgary needs to prioritize building through the draft, and selecting fairly high. I am pretty sure that's the plan right now anyway. Conroy doesn't want to burn it down to the ground, and I agree with it. However, that doesn't mean you don't pick top 3. There are zero teams that are in the 'burn it to the ground' stage - everyone down there is trying to improve. Wouldn't surprise me to see Calgary close to the bottom 5 by the end of the season (they had way better players last year for the majority of the year, and finished 9th worst while having worse teams overall at the bottom). I think they definitely do finish at the bottom next season and the season after that. Even without trades, what are the chances that Kadri puts up a 60pt+ season at age 35? I love Backlund, but how long does he last? Coleman? Does Andersson get re-signed? There really aren't that many pegs left holding this team up. It is right above scorched earth right now, but this team is finding ways to win. I just don't see it continuing much longer.
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