Quote:
Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy
lol
For the last two years they've done nothing but trade older players for picks, prospects and younger players and hover around the cap floor with the payroll.
They are rebuilding. The proof is in what they do, not what they say.
Until they change what they are doing, I'm not buying the BS
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Rebuilding is hard. Everything that they have said and have done in the past suggests that they will take try to take short cuts to be mildly as competitive as possible. This is the Flames culture and it starts from top down. The culture of this franchise to always want to compete even if winning it all is highly unlikely. Culture is not winning or losing. Those are outcomes. Culture is "shared beliefs, values, and traditions." They believe that this City cannot withstand a rebuild for a top pick and they value being competitive enough to sell tickets and not to win it all. This is culture that influences everything the franchise does from how decisions are made in management, how the team is run, and the players compete level on the ice.
I think this is what fans are complaining about. The fans are worried that any progress made during the rebuilding process will be short cut as soon as the opportunity arises for the team to accelerate plan to "compete" now. It is not that fans think that they are not rebuilding... The franchise has been forced to intentionally or not (there is also a wide spectrum for levels of rebuilding/re-tooling).
People say look at actions and not just words (I don't think all of these things are necessarily bad but I am just trying to show how it fits the narrative that people are worried about):
- They asked for players and communicated to the fanbase that they want players to compete now / "fit" the timeline back in trades (Miromanov, Sharangovich, Frost, Farabee, Bahl) instead of futures.
- They preferred to *initially* re-sign key core $$ pieces before moving on (Anderson, Lindholm, Hanifan).
- They place a heavy emphasis on vets rather than putting young players in position to succeed (re-signing Backlund, not giving Parekh PP1 in pre season even though PP has been atrocious since last year with the same players, not giving Parekh a stable partner, Sending Gridin down when the team can't score... Zary and Bennett before him)
- Going further back - trying to accelerate the Johnny/Monnny/Chucky core rebuild... Hamilton Trade, Hamonic Trade, Elliot Trade, James Neal, Huberdeau trade (instead of re-building)
It is the way they are re-building that many people have an issue with. Although it is a different GM it is the owner and organizational structure that have made decisions that put Calgary and the mushy middle and made them largely irrelevant for the past 30 years.
The history of actions by the Flames is what makes people freak out when you hear the President of Hockey Ops come out and say these things. People keep pointing to staying away from words and looking at actions but they seem to avoid the entire history of the Franchise. Culture outlasts GMs and that intuitional knowledge and memory is what everyone is freaking out about.
Even if the Flames came in last and drafted McKenna how many of you would be confident that the team would not trade away a bunch of first round picks or all of the promising looking prospects that the Flames have accumulated over the last two years? Also for a team that has been re-building for the last 3 years as many have put it... The Flames are ranked in the 20s with only one player in the top 50 for Core pieces under 24 years old by TSN (*take these rankings with a grain of salt and Wolf just turned 24 so was not eligible).
They are far from nearing the end of a re-build even if they draft #1 this year and this President is talking about competing...