Quote:
Originally Posted by Petert
In hindsight, there is no difference.
We ended up with nothing.
Feaster was a terrible GM.
|
We can all blame Feaster for all the mess that was created and the team pretty much spiraled down to the cellar. However, that mess was created from decades of crappy drafting. Then Darryl Sutter came along and became the GM that went even further and basically left the organization with practically nothing in the farms. During the Sutter(s) years, the Flames were always one to two players short up front to win it all and that's Darryl's mentality, but he got greedy on stacking up the defense and could never get the centerman depth that he needed to get the team over the top.
Feaster was brought in only to try and clean up the mess and was a scapegoat to tank the team. He had to free up the cap space so that they can spend on affordable free agents while they can start stocking up on talent through better drafting. As painful as it was to hold on to Iggy, it was practically a double edge sword for the team as they're going through the rebuild mode. Regehr's trade was the first huge blow to the team to try to free up salary. In a lot of cases, Feaster's hands were tied due to the limited trade agreements with the existing players on the roster. With what he got and with the positions in the draft as the Flames tanked, that was the best he could do. I think he did the best he could at the time. It's not ugly and it's not the best outcome, but it was a transition period. Feaster was there only to please the fans as much as possible for the entertainment aspect of the business.
To me, there are two of the worst decisions any team could of made in the last decade and the Flames did both at the same time back to back:
1) Instead of tanking properly, they decide to win against the Oilers in the final game of that one season. So, the Oilers actually placed themselves right above the Flames in the draft. They drafted Draisaitl while the Flames took Bennett.
2) The very next year, the Connor McDavid sweepstakes is on and the Flames went out with a bang while every team held back (except for Chicago and the Pens). I guess the Playoffs is far more important than a proper rebuilt. So, most of the teams lined up for the last possible free-for-all sweepstakes while the Flames decide they'd take the high road to get into the playoffs and got their party crashed heavily in the second round by the Ducks. Then, the next year, they weren't even close to making the playoffs.
If those two events aren't the dumbest things that any organizations could've done, I don't know what is. Take a look back in history, the Pens went back-to-back years of tanking for Lemieux and Jagr (tthere were some pretty great picking in between the two superstars as well). Then they did it again with Malkin, Crosby, Fleury, and Staal. The Caps did the same thing with Ovechkin and Backstrom. It'll be just a matter of time before the Oilers will win it all with all the high first round picks that they've had over the years no matter how much we hate it. Sometimes I wonder if Feaster had full control of the team rebuild, I think he would've took this team right down to the bottom, made everyone swallow that pride and build it back up with longer vision for success. However, with Burke coming in and then Treliving soon after, his hands were really never loosened to do his job as the one and only GM. Who knows if he could've done it, but one this is certain, he did the best he could with what he had on the table at those moments in time.