Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rd Degree
Why I think it makes sense to delay his promotion to the NHL if the Flames aren’t contending is two fold:
1. You increase the time he is in NHL on his ELC while the Flames are contending. Allowing the Flames to get more value from the team while spending to the cap in the last year or two of his ELC. Teams are better when they have players outperforming their contracts.
2. If you’re not competing for the cup, why bring a good player in that will help you finish in the middle of the pack instead of near the bottom?
I’m not suggesting to tank as I believe trying to lose creates losers. However, if you don’t add a skilled player to the team, that team will finish lower in the standing.
Imagine if Wolf was in the AHL right now. We’d be drafting in the top 5.
My philosophy on team building is very simple. Pick a lane. Either be great or be terrible. Constantly hanging around the middle makes it very difficult to build a powerhouse.
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You do not need to max out his ELC. Parekh is coming in at the front end of the new prospect pool. Get him onto the team and developing into a potential future captain (or at least leader) and central piece to the new team core to take the reigns from the current team core.
To put it another way, think of the strategy you should be following and the steps you need to take. In my opinion, Conroy’s strategy looks like this:
Step 1: Build your new core of skilled players through drafting and trading (Wolf, Coronato, Zary, Bahl, Parekh, Brzustewicz, etc)
Step 2: Supplement your core with young, cheap skilled players on entry level contracts (prospect drafted in 2026-8)
Step 3: Sign / trade for skilled vets to help win immediately
Step 4: LTIR a player or two for the season so they show up in the playoffs and add even more skilled players.
We are in Step 1, which will likely take a couple of years of retooling, and you are skipping ahead and trying to implement Step 2 on the wrong player.
Also, at the same time as you do not want to tank to create a losing culture, you also need a culture where players can trust that they are treated fairly, and you are not abusing them by holding them back in their careers. No one will show you loyalty if you treat them like video game NPCs and directly impact their careers (and pocketbooks) because you are trying to maximize your control over them or worse yet, hold them back because they are too good to be on your “terrible lane” NHL team.