Quote:
Originally Posted by MegaErtz
I don't know what the answer is, but the current system does not work in the NHL. The salary cap was brought in to help small market teams like the Flames compete, but we're less competitive now than we were in the late 90s and early 2000s. Maybe raising the draft age a couple of years might help? So few players play in the NHL in the year or two after they get drafted.
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No way that's a cap issue, it's a management/ownership issue. The Flames would be way worse off, and honestly maybe relocated by now if the system stayed the same before the salary cap.
Yes, there is still a gap between what a team in an undesirable city (relax, not a shot at Calgary as a livable city for the average person, just in terms of millionaire athletes choosing between here and LA, New York, Chicago, Dallas etc) can acquire in trades/free agency vs the big dogs. But, the real failure in most Canadian markets in the cap NHL is the media/fan pressure that GM's/ownership groups succumb to in Canada that end up with fast tracked rebuilds or no rebuilds at all when they needed them to try to get the team back to competitive as quick as possible.
The Flames are a walking example of this issue with Canadian teams (I'm seeing light at the end of the dark Flames fan tunnel with Conroy, but still hints from insiders that random small, in season samples of team success vs lack thereof was driving whether to rebuild properly or not. Just bottom out, acquire top end talent in the draft with a few bottom 5 finishes and start building a core. But GM's just struggle to do that in this country.