Craig Button Pyramid (Team Construction)

[Bingo]

Just saw this on TSN, interesting.

Pyramid of how to build a team. Put up the blue print then he looked at the Kings then the Leafs.

Called it the 3-2-1-2-1 pyramid

From bottom to top:

3 D (have to all be top 4)
2 C
1 G
2 F
1 D

Had the Kings at:

Doughty Voynov Muzzin
Kopitar Carter
Quick
Toffoli Williams
Martinez

Then pointed out the Leafs and their issues missing 2 of 4 D, iffy at center, good on the wing, iffy in net.

So the Flames? What's their pyramid?

Giordano Brodie Russell
Backlund Monahan
Hiller
Hudler Gaudreau
Wideman

I see the weakest links at Hiller and Wideman

Like the fact that Bennett is coming in as well.

Thoughts?

[_Q_]

Can you explain this a bit more?

What's the difference between the 3 D up top and the 1 D at the bottom?

How does this pyramid help you build a championship team?

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by _Q_

Can you explain this a bit more?

What's the difference between the 3 D up top and the 1 D at the bottom?

How does this pyramid help you build a championship team?

How dare you question the championship team building abilities of Craig Button!

[GranteedEV]

Russell "should" be that final D. Gotta get someone to push him down, preferably a righty like Adam Larsson.
Monahan, Bennett still have a long way to go before we're "good enough". Love Backlund and I hope he's here for at least the next five years.
Hudler is undersized when paired with Johnny. They're both great individually and with great chemistry but need a big top line winger to compensate for them (Poirier?)
Ortio is the answer. Time next year for him to prove it.

[Bingo]

I think the basic summary of the whole thing is;

you need a goalie
4 top 4 D
2 top 2 centers
2 top six wingers

[dissentowner]

Craig Button's Flames pyramid

Micki Dupont, Petr Buzek, Bob Boughner
Blair Betts, Scott Nichol
Roman Turek
Ruslan Zainullin, Blake Sloan
Denis Gauthier

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I think the basic summary of the whole thing is;

you need a goalie
4 top 4 D
2 top 2 centers
2 top six wingers

Button must have thought either Stephane Yelle or Rob Niedermayer was a top 2 center when he shipped Marc Savard to Atlanta for a ghost.

Craig Button's an idiot who doesn't deserve a thread in his name.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by T@T

Button must have thought either Stephane Yelle or Rob Niedermayer was a top 2 center when he shipped Marc Savard to Atlanta for a ghost.

I'm pretty sure that trade happened because Savard and Gilbert didn't get along. They picked the coach over the player. Dumb move and brutal return, but it's kind of like the Evander Kane situation in Winnepeg.

[jeffman]

I think the model should be 1 elite c , 2 very good c's, 1 elite d, 1 d capable of playing >20 mins a game, 2 d capable of playing >15 mins and a good enough goalie. The rest should be plug and play

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by T@T

Button must have thought either Stephane Yelle or Rob Niedermayer was a top 2 center when he shipped Marc Savard to Atlanta for a ghost.

Craig Button's an idiot who doesn't deserve a thread in his name.

I think Button was pretty hamstrung in Calgary, I like the guy. I've always enjoyed his comments and analysis on TSN.

Personally, he was an amazing guy inside the Flames dressing room. Polite and respectful even to internet media nerds like me.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by _Q_

Can you explain this a bit more?

What's the difference between the 3 D up top and the 1 D at the bottom?

How does this pyramid help you build a championship team?

The 3 d at the top are your top 3 guys.

Basically, you need 3 defenders that COULD be top pairing guys.

So, Doughty-Muzzin could be a top pairing and Doughty - Voynov could be a top pairing.

But then, your 4th guy has to be a legit 2nd pairing guy as well, someone who carries the 2nd pairing rather than who is the passenger.

Then you need 2 centres who could pass as #1 Cs. A guy who can step in on the first line if your first line guy goes down, but who can generate a ton of offense (and play defense) on his own on the second line. Anaheim has this now with Getzlaf/Kesler. Boston has it with Bergeron/Krecji.

Then you need a clearcut #1 goaltender.

Then you need 2 more top tier forwards, usually with specialties. The blueprint seems to be having a 'power' forward, a physical winger who can score, like say Lucic or Dustin Brown, and or and elite 2-way player like Patrick Sharp.

Basically you need 3 defenders who can play top pairing, 2 centres who can play first line minutes, a top 10 goalie, another guy who's a legit #3/4D and two wingers who can play top line minutes.

Calgary have monahan and bennett as potential Cs. Gaudreau is your 3rd forward and Poirer could be the other one. Ortio is I think a legit top 10 goalie in the future and you have Brodie, but you need at least 3 more solid D prospects.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I think Button was pretty hamstrung in Calgary, I like the guy. I've always enjoyed his comments and analysis on TSN.

Personally, he was an amazing guy inside the Flames dressing room. Polite and respectful even to internet media nerds like me.

The way I look at Button's term in Calgary is that he wasn't quite ready for the job. This is why Treliving having Burke to bounce things off of is important.

[Winsor_Pilates]

I'm having a hard time seeing how that shapes a pyramid at all. Maybe a Christmas tree?

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I think Button was pretty hamstrung in Calgary, I like the guy. I've always enjoyed his comments and analysis on TSN.

Personally, he was an amazing guy inside the Flames dressing room. Polite and respectful even to internet media nerds like me.

Can you expand on this? I was told Ken King felt he gave Button too much power over operations.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by T@T

Button must have thought either Stephane Yelle or Rob Niedermayer was a top 2 center when he shipped Marc Savard to Atlanta for a ghost.

Craig Button's an idiot who doesn't deserve a thread in his name.

Craig Button might not be a good GM but he is far from an idiot. One of the few analysts who I enjoy listening to.

[_Q_]

Each team does it differently.

Plus, any one of the Kings defence that I would label as a #1 is Doughty. The rest are #3/4 guys on most teams.

[the_only_turek_fan]

Originally Posted by T@T

Button must have thought either Stephane Yelle or Rob Niedermayer was a top 2 center when he shipped Marc Savard to Atlanta for a ghost.

Craig Button's an idiot who doesn't deserve a thread in his name.

That Yelle/Drury trade that Button made was brilliant.

The Avs were never the same.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Craig Button's Flames pyramid

Micki Dupont, Petr Buzek, Bob Boughner
Blair Betts, Scott Nichol
Roman Turek
Ruslan Zainullin, Blake Sloan
Denis Gauthier

I think I have the right guy (might have been Al Coates though) but I think it was Button that said he envisioned Derek Morris - Robyn Regehr pairing for the next 10 years, and Leopold was supposed to be that No 3 I guess.

Also firmed up the starting position, might have sounded off but remember how we were oscillating between Ken Wregget, Mike Vernon and Grant Fuhr... it was the first time we really had a steady No 1, maybe not great but consistant.

Tried to firm up a C position with Conroy

I could kind of see where he was going with (in retrospect)

[T@T]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Craig Button might not be a good GM but he is far from an idiot. One of the few analysts who I enjoy listening to.

Sometimes he seems OK I guess but then he goes off on a mental tangents like "rebuilds are 15 years" or crucifying Rielly is for saying things just about any 20 year old would.

To me he acts like he's the end all of hockey minds but yet when he had the chance he failed miserably.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by T@T

Can you expand on this? I was told Ken King felt he gave Button too much power over operations.

$$$. Murray and co were pretty tight with the purse strings before 2004.