Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason14h
1. I haven't seen anyone say we should emulate the Sharks tear down. In fact they waited WAY to long to tear down and it's one of the reasons it's taken so long. People are saying look at the prospect base they are exiting their rebuild with and thats what the Flames need to aspire too/what we will be competing with
2. They couldn't trade Burns - He's the Huberdeau. Lets see if we eventually can move Huberdeau
2b. They couldn't trade EK until his surprise season and moved him ASAP after that
3. Meier is 28. Hertl is 31. In 18/19 they were 22 and 25. No one (i have seen) is asking the Flames to trade Cornato and Zary for futures to tank. They did that after they got into years 4/5 and realized they are years away still and holding players that will be post apex when you start competing is silly and might cost you the top draft pick / best lottery chance and guaranteed top 3.
SJ has missed playoffs for 6 years. Flames 3. SJ should be coming out of their rebuild and start upswinging next year. Flames should be aiming to come out of their rebuild in ~3 years and on to upswing into the new building.
So the issue is SJ got some elite prospects in years 4-5-6 of the rebuild/missing playoffs.
If the Flames were to get three elite prospects the next few seasons they would be looking fantastic in 3 years for potential. If they get some 13-14-15th overall picks they will have a pretty weak looking roster and guys like Cornato will start approaching the age that SJ decided to trade Meier and Hertl...
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But you're looking at outcome and not process.
My point is people point to teams like San Jose and Chicago and say "Flames should do what they did and bottom out"
But that actually ignores how that happened. Those teams ended up being bad due to mismanagement (trades like the Karlsson and Jones trades, not by design). You could argue the Flames actually did more to bottom out and get a high pick than both Chicago and San Jose did. But it just didn't work out in reality because they weren't nearly as mismanaged as those teams were prior to the "tear down".
Flames have traded veterans (more roster turnover than any team in recent memory, stayed out of the UFA market, and played youngsters over the last two seasons. They tried to do exactly what the "be bad and get high picks" crowd wants them to do. And actually probably did it more aggressively than San Jose and Chicago did.
All the team can do is control the inputs - and that's what they've done - they've tried to build a team that's in the lottery. You can't trade the entire roster overnight, there is no precident for that in the NHL, but they've made more moves than most teams to try to get younger and gain picks.
But things like some veterans aging better than expected, and pieces like Wolf, Coronato, etc contributing more than expected kept them out of the bottom 5. You can't really control that.
Tough part now though is you can't guarantee them being bad, and then also is going to annoy ultra competitive guys like Wolf who don't want to finish last in the league. So you have to be more strategic about how your build goes from here on out.
Everyone would love pieces like Celebrini, Smith, Misa, and Dickinson, there is no denying that. But it's not as easy as just saying "trade everyone and be bad", because that doesn't guarantee you end up where San Jose is either.