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Old 01-03-2026, 09:33 AM   #18443
Aarongavey
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Two Fivenagame View Post
I recall CP being like this the last time the Flames faced a rebiggle. The discussion back then centered around why the Flames waited so long to trade Iginla. Most of CP saw the writing on the wall - Iginla and the rest of the roster were getting older, slower, and were playing some of the most boring unwatchable hockey. Yet the Flames seemed to drag their feet and made decisions that kept the roster in the mushy middle for a number of years.
The future was bolstered by mushy-middle draft picks like Tim Erickson, Greg Nemisz, Mark Jankowski, and Sven Baertschi.

There wasn't any real excitement for the future until the Flames bottomed out and started drafting near the top with Bennett, Monahan, and Tkachuk. That's when CP became really interesting and a fun place to be.

Unfortunately I see the Flames doing the same things again. They're afraid to make to make hard decisions that truly benefit the future and immediately inject some potential super Star talent on the roster. So once again the Flames trot out the old ways of thinking - we can't trade him, he has a NMC, we need to keep the culture in the room, we need an offer that really blows our socks off, we don't use the "R" word, there are other ways to build a roster that doesn't rely on bottoming out, yadda yadda yadda.
Meanwhile, here are Zary, Peltier, Honzek, Coronato, and Reschney instead of any legitimate chance at Bedard, Celibrini, Schaefer, and likely McKenna.

Worst of all imo, you don't need 5 GMs to do that work and certainly not the same crew keeping you in the mushy middle.

Fire Maloney and the rest, give CC complete control, trade everyone over 26 for *reasonable* returns instead of holding out for the best possible deals, and bottom the eff out right bloody now. Avoid this slow inevitable death nonsense and bottom out now.
So this plan would be moving (not counting Huberdeau as I believe he cannot be realistically moved)

Kadri - 7 million
Sharangovich - 5.75 million
Coleman - 4.9 million
Backlund - 4.5 million
Lomberg - 2 million
Kirkland - 900K
Weegar - 6.25 million
Andersson -4.55 million
Hanley - 1.75 million
Bean - 1.75 million
Cooley - 775K

Not taking into account accrual space that would leave the Flames about 20 million below the cap floor for this year and about 33 million under the floor for next year (after Wolf’s new contract). The Flames would have to take back some guys over 26 with big contracts just to make the cap floor in this scenario or convince UFAs to sign on with a team with such a gutted roster.
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