While in practice it's been a long transition, this trade deadline is what emotionally truly ended this chapter in Flames hockey, and started the rebuild era. At least that's how I feel about it at the moment. Kadri was such a huge piece of this team during his time here, even if his tenure wasn't super long.
The next years will be the true measurement of the quality of our management and scouting, and of course a measurement of Conroy at the helm.
The risk is obviously that this will be the beginning of a new dark era, and there is always a big element of luck involved in a rebuild, but I feel that at least the Flames have given themselves a chance for a brighter future. There's something to look forward to.
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