[stemit14]

The toughest thing about any rebuild is that the difference between a successful one and an unsuccessful one can be really influenced by luck + timing. Luck is mostly due to the draft lottery and timing is mostly due to when the team bottoms out. It’s important to bottom out in drafts with elite centers to give your team the most important piece of any team that is a perennial contender. This is why I think San Jose and Anaheim are looking like successful rebuilds going forward. They bottomed out in drafts where they could get guys like Celebrini, Smith and Carlson. Compare that to New York bottoming out and getting Lafreniere and Kakko. Or Detroit who never really got any elite centers through their rebuild years.

My hope is that the flames get any of the top four players (McKenna, Stenberg, Lawrence or Verhoeff) in the 2026 draft. And then truly bottom out next year and get Alexis Joseph. Problem is that most of that working out is based on luck. Trading Andersson, Coleman and Kadri in the next 30 days would help solidify the odds that they at least get one of the top four players in the 2026 draft. Going into next season without any major adds to the group I think would solidify the likelihood of the flames drafting top 3 in that draft as well. The dream scenario is McKenna in this draft and Joseph in 2027. In that highly unlikely scenario, two years from now, the flames could be building a core group of forwards around McKenna, Joseph, Gridin, Coronato and Reschny… and a core defence around Parekh, Brz, Bahl, Kuznetzov and Mews.