[TOfan]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Absolutely. Other than CAR, the top contenders in the league (FLA, TOR, COL, VGK, TBL) have traded away most of their 1st and 2nd round picks for years. It’s the standard operating procedure in the league today, when contention windows only last 4-6 seasons.

The Avs, for instance, have no 1st, 2nd, or 3rd round picks in the 2025 or 2026 drafts. They didn’t make a 1st round pick in 2022 or 2024 either, and have traded away the player they drafted in the 1st round in 2023. You’ll see similar stories with the other contenders.

The Panthers traded away their 1st round pick in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026. The Lightning traded away their 1st round pick in 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027.

The Stars are somewhat more conservative, having only traded away their 2023 1st, 2024 2nd, 2025 1st and 2nd, and 2026 1st. Same with the Oilers, who have only traded their 2021, 2022, and 2025 2nds, and 2023, 2025, and 2026 1sts.

Exactly.

We can criticize Treliving, perhaps, on his ‘misread’ of whether or not the Flames were really contenders at that point but he was a lot closer to the team and the league than any of us ever were. I don’t think Treliving was dumb though. And he also wasn’t working alone. His read on the team would have been supported by many of the long term staff under him. Conroy, Snow, Pascal, Maloney, and, yes, ownership.

Anyway, I didn’t go back and read how Brad Treliving, who has been gone for two years, resurfaced in a thread about an Andrew Mangiapane trade, that happened a year ago. Suppose some folks are still triggered.