I don't know how much good it does to rehearse Treliving's historical pursuit of starting goaltenders for the Flames, but I will say this much—and I honestly think his tenure can be boiled rather simply down to this...
Treliving's job is to build a Championship team, and since the day he arrived in Calgary he has taken incremental steps toward achieving that goal. Team building takes time, it is not linear, and the end result is not realized on a micro-level with equal progression at every position. I think the fact that he has been in active pursuit of a long-term starting goalie for the Flames is a good thing, and while the stop-gaps in the meantime have met with mixed results the acquisitions of Elliott, Smith, and now Talbot need also to be evaluated in the same context with drafting Matthew Tkachuk to trades for Hamilton, Hamonic, Hanifin and Lindholm. In short: if Treliving had made plays for a high profile goalie like Bishop or Anderssen when the opportunity was there, it would have come at a significant cost, and the rest of the team would look different today because of it.
It's the remaining hole to fill, and at this point management seems to believe that they may already have the goalie in the system to fill it, be that David Rittich or Tyler Parsons.
|