Weigh in with 3 positives and 3 negatives for the Flames going into th 23/24 season

[Backstop]

There are definitely positives to be optimistic about going in to the 23/24 season, but that optimism is tempered by some caveats.

Ive seen opinions on both sides of the positive / negative divide with merit, and think this thread may produce some interesting takeaways as it requires optimists and pessimists to weigh in on both sides of the argument.

The objective is to list 3x Positives and 3x Negatives going into the 23/24 season.

Positives:

1. The injection of youth into the lineup
2. Iggy back in the fold guiding development
3. New coach and management driving a new culture

Negatives:

1. Huska as a head coach at the NHL level is unproven
2. Still carrying 5 UFAs, possibly into camp
3. Murray Edwards and his influence in decision making remain

[Reggie Dunlop]

Postives:

1. We're good enough, we're smart enough and gosh darn it, people like us.
2. Fresh management/staff to replace toxicity of last season.
3. Some talented youngsters ready to step up.

Negatives:

1. Some difficult contracts to move out.
2. Divisional rivals improving
3. General angst endemic to the Flames fanbase.

[getbak]

Positives:

1. Wolf, Pelletier, Coronato all ready to make the jump (and hopefully a few more).
2. New management and coaching staff should breathe some new life into the dressing room.
3. We should see shovels in the dirt for the new arena before the end of the season.

Negatives:

1. Still too much uncertainty around the pending UFAs.
2. Capped out roster with long-term commitments to players who might not be the right fit.
3. The fan base needs therapy.

[TheChief]

Postives

1. Lots of guys on expiring deals who will be playing for the next deal.
2. Markstrom cant be worse then he was last year (IMO sole reason why we missed)
3. Full year to get acclimated for the new players so they should be better as well.

Negatives


1. No Sutter - No secret that I think it was a mistake letting him go.
2. UFAs - Its shown that if the Flames are close they wont move pending UFAs and that is scary.
3. Potential 3 headed monster in net and thin blue line if Hanifin gets moved.

[DeluxeMoustache]

Positives
1. New GM bringing positivity, from top of the org down, hopefully getting more out of players who underperformed last year
2. New coaching, adjusting the defensive system to stop the egregious breakdowns, new PP coach, and hopefully better prepared for 3 on 3
3. Organizational philosophy change making room for young players to earn roster spots and not be blocked by post apex mediocre vets


Negatives
1. Guys who want out or leave the team hanging in limbo.
2. 3 goalies. You only have 2 nets in practice. A tough decision may have to be made.
3. The long term contracts for Huberdeau (though I’m familiar enough with his work) and especially Kadri. His cap hit isn’t brutal if he produces, but he checked out last year and I don’t have confidence in him based on what I saw.

[FlamesAddiction]

Positives:

1. We are going to see an injection of youth into the line-up.
2. New management and coaches should change some of the culture. I am really looking forward to seeing what Savvy can do with the offense.
3. As more news comes out about the arena plans, it should start building positive hype.

Negatives:

1. If there were conflicts in the dressing room, bringing back most of the same core could be bad.
2. I don't think the roster has improved since last season. Counting on players to rebound isn't really a plan, but rather just a hope.
3. A lot of pending UFAs still, could be a distraction this season.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Positives.

1. New culture and no Sutter hovering around he is finished for good we can move on now.
2. Young players will be played.
3. Recognizing offence is the way to go and bringing in Savard who I'm so excited about.

Negatives

1. What the heck is happening with the FA and why are we allowing Lindholm to dictate the future.
2. 3 goalies. Markstrom or Vladar should be gone.
3. Huska is unproven.

[Jiri Hrdina]

The 3 goalies is easily solved
Wolf should be starting in the AHL and being recalled when they want to actually give him a start
Having the farm team in the same city makes it easier

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

The 3 goalies is easily solved
Wolf should be starting in the AHL and being recalled when they want to actually give him a start
Having the farm team in the same city makes it easier

The 3 headed monster in 15/16 is still fresh regardless of the ability to move Wolf around.

I personally believe he's franchise changer.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

The 3 goalies is easily solved
Wolf should be starting in the AHL and being recalled when they want to actually give him a start
Having the farm team in the same city makes it easier

We need to give Wolf some starts at the beginning of the season to see what he can do at the NHL level. Trade Vladar if it appears Wolf can handle the backup roll. Splitting the backup roll with Wolf and Vladar doesn't benefit either goalie. They need to play as much as possible.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Every thread is now a Wolf Thread.

[saillias]

3 Positives
1. No more Sutter / presumably no more toxic cloud around the team. Hopefully everyone in the dressing room is on the same side. The entire former LA Kings cadre is out.

2. speaking of the former LA Kings, someone on twitter, Dom or JFresh, has us actually better than last year in terms of estimated WAR, just on the basis of dropping Lucic/Lewis from the lineup.

3. A lot of guys from our AHL squad get a real chance now. I'm hoping the vote of confidence from Conroy who has stated they were first in the AHL and deserve a chance to make the team is encouraging to all these prospects. It depends on the year, but I've long had a theory that the Flames could blindly pick 3 guys from the AHL squad and get an equivalent or better result than what their 4th line is doing.

3 Negatives
1. Direction of the team is still unclear. It's the one thing Conroy isn't being open about, which suggests to me he doesn't really know himself. And the UFA situation is not resolved.

2. We traded our top scorer for a guy who scored 40 less points and we already had trouble scoring goals.

3. There's an assumption of bounce back. The whole team and certain individuals. but that's not inevitable. Maybe certain players are just falling off. Some guys had career years or close to it. Key players are over 30.

[boogerz]

Positives:

1. The entire team (both players and the new coaching staff) has a chip on its shoulder

2. Forward and defense are deep

3. Low, or at least lowered, expectations and pressure for team performance



Negatives:

1. Unproven head coach

2. Chemistry amongst the "top 6" forwards is unknown or questionable

3. No truly elite or gamebreaking talent at any position

[bigrangy]

The team’s #1 d-man is back
Huberdeau can’t be any worse
Lewis isn’t dragging down the PK any more

[Winsor_Pilates]

P1: Wolf
P2: New & Positive Management
P3: Youth injection

N1: No superstar (gamebreaker) talent; unless Huberdeau proves me wrong.
N2: Players still don't want to choose Calgary
N3: Not good enough to contend, not bad enough to aquire top 5 draft talent. Middling middle is almost guaranteed this season.

[gvitaly]

Positives

1. The prospects will finally get a big opportunity to step up
2. This team is likely going be a lot more fun to watch in the offensive zone, and in transition this year
3. Conroy strength seems to be identifying good prospects, which is a great foundation for building a team. In addition, he seems to encourage collaboration, and ownership of the team's decisions from the entire managerial staff.

Negatives

1. We are unlikely to get a good value or sell high on our upcoming UFA's because of the cap situation
2. Moving from Sutter to Huska is a downgrade, because Huska is an unproven coach, and he didn't show anything special as the interim coach with a 0-1-1 record.
3. The room has been a problem and it hasn't been addressed sufficiently. Almost all the players who can, want to leave the team. I almost expect our top players to try and pad their stats for free agency instead of worrying about the team's wins and losses.

[lazypucker]

Positives:

(1) New management and new coaching staff
(2) It's a new season, so everything resets and every team starts at 0
(3) Seemingly there will be more chnaces for the youngsters to get into the lineup

Negatives:

(1) Inexperienced management and coarching staff - pretty much 0 NHL experience
(2) Slow acting in the roster front - still too many UFAs and no big moves
(3) Still not willing to admit the current core is no good and refuse to go into a rebuild

[Jimdon]

I'll admit that I have a pessimistic bias going into this year. The problem I see is the positives I can come up with are almost all wishful thinking with no guarantees and the negatives seem to be inevitable and despite lip service from our new GM haven't been addressed at all so far.

Without making a specific list the positives should be a change in culture and direction by the management by allowing youth to have a serious role in the team. But youth requires development and the leadership group of this team seems determined to convince everyone that this team can still be a contender. Obviously Wolf is at the top of this list, but as of today he is still a third strong goalie besides being the best goalie prospect not in the NHL playing behind the 31st best goalie tandem last year.

Conroy said he's determined not to let our assets walk for nothing but the only trade he's made so far is pretty underwhelming and seems to be maybe the only one of the UFAs that seemed to really want to be here but felt insulted when the team didn't make a contract for him a priority.

This is the team I love and the only team I cheer for but I'm having a hard time seeing a future where we don't hit rock bottom before any meaningful change actually happens.

[Sandman]

Positives:

1)Will be fun to watch the youngsters.
2)Huby, Kadri, and Marky should rebound- at least somewhat.
3)New arena is coming!

Negatives:

1)I'll just say it- I doubt Huska will be any better than Gully or Ward. Hope I'm wrong.
2)Team is too small and soft.
3)I have a feeling we'll be disappointed with the return for a few of our trade chips.

[dissentowner]

Positives.

1. The team will play to their potential and win the division..
2. The kids are alright
3. Because the team will do well the negative Nelly's on here won't be as vocal.
4. Bonus: They are not the Oilers who will be No Good.

Negatives.
None. Everything is awesome!