Had to go Sutter here.
Brought me back as a flames fan, as I was basically done as a Flames/NHL fan by 2003, after a decade of being a joke. Made the playoffs and a contending team for 5 consecutive years by making some pretty big acquisitions (kipper, langkow, Tanguay, Huselius, cammalleri, bouwmeester, aside from key guys for the cup run). He wasn't a great drafter/development building GM, but that did improve over his tenure (backhand, Ferland, Brodie, and picking up a guy like Giordano). Unfortunately, he'll be judged harshly for how things ended, which is where he got extremely desperate and made some horrid asset management moves.
It was close between Sutter and Coates. Treliving was a definitely after both in my mind.
Treliving came into an or with the #4 pick in the draft (ie. a rebuilding team) that already had a few building blocks in the pipeline (Monahan, Gaudraeu - though he was definitely a question mark at the time) and cap room.
it'll be 6 years since his hiring, and it's been a bumpy, up and down every other season type tenure. His greatest move as GM has been getting lindholm. However, I am not sold on many of his trades still. In hindsight, I don't think GMs of teams not clearly out of their rebuild should be trading away high round picks. Treliving gave up 2x first round picks and 3x 2nd round picks as the acquisition cost for Hamilton, Hamonic and Lazar. At the stage of the rebuild the flames were at, those are pretty brutal moves (luckily the Hamilton deal led to lindholm, or it would have been pretty fugly).
The high round drafing has been good (tkachuk, valimaki, dude, Andersson) with some solid picks in later rounds (fox, mangiapane, kylington). That being said, the cupboards are relatively barren compared to most other organizations. That's with little growth and maturing to a true contending frachise.
A middling roster, with not much in the way of high end prospects coming isn't something I am all that excited about as a fan.
|