"Purposely try to be perpetually terrible" is not even close to what I said. Not going to bother with this any longer until you stop misrepresenting my position.
But if it satisfies you, the Flames tried to bottom out in the 90s in some sense (though not strictly in the way I meant). But it was clearly the wrong time to try it, as there were special circumstances that prevented them from landing a top pick.
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