[News] Flames trade deadline press conference stream

[mustache ride]

Originally Posted by Dion

That's all you have for a response?

It's all he needed.

[Walter Reed]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Feaster: "Murray Edwards told me this morning that he expects us to be in playoffs next year"

Interesting comments from Eric Francis concerning Feasters of making the playoffs next year on the pre-game show. Agreed with him 100%.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by mustache ride

It's all he needed.

To further more discussion?

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by Walter Reed

Interesting comments from Eric Francis concerning Feasters of making the playoffs next year on the pre-game show. Agreed with him 100%.

What did he say?

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by MissTeeks

Do we get a show on Sportsnet about our rebuild too? What would ours be called? "Fire Sale"? Not quite the same ring to it as "Oil Change".

It can only be "Reignition".

[moon]

Originally Posted by Dion

The past is in no way a gaurentee of what's going to happen in the future. Jay Feaster has admitted mistakes and the team is heading in a different direction with the trades of Iginla and Bouwmeester. I would think fans would be excited about the prospect of us not being a team that loads up on aging vets in an attempt to get a playoff spot every year.

Sure it is no guarantee but it seems to be how most, if not all, people are judged in their job and so far this group has shown 0 hockey sense. They have made poor trades, poor UFA signings, by their own admission badly misjudged the talent on this team and where they were, made an awful offer to Brad Richards and f'ed up the ROR (not just the risk of losing picks but being dumb enough to make the offer sheet.) There is no reason to think going forward that they are going to suddenly gain hockey sense and start making good decisions now.

Teams are going to have to pair down their rosters to meet the demands of a lower cap. Flames will be one of the few with cap space to spend on players. Unlike other years of UFA's the upcoming compliance buyout will mean there will be alot more players on the market. It's not going to be like years past where the cap was always going up.

They aren't giving up good it just means more secondary/crap players to overpay and help us get to 10th spot. Meaningful, young players which this team needs are not going to be bought out.

So having a pick somehwere in the top 6 is something to be negitive about?

If their was competent management here then I would be very excited.

[Walter Reed]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

What did he say?

Esentially stating the Flames statements of making the playoffs next season were unrealistic and disingenuousness to the fan base. While every team's goal is to make make the playoffs and win the cup he can't foresee the prospect pieces in the pipeline necessary to change this in immediate future. Steinberg said Ottawa rebounded after missing the playoffs in one season. Francis rebuttal was the Flames will have missed for the previous four seasons not one as Ottawa had selling their future for temporary bandaid solutions. Said while the process of a total rebuild will be trying and painful it is necessary. He completely demolished Steinbergs willingness to soft-sell the Flames org wistful notions to Calgarians leaving Pat clearly frustrated.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by moon

Sure it is no guarantee but it seems to be how most, if not all, people are judged in their job and so far this group has shown 0 hockey sense. They have made poor trades, poor UFA signings, by their own admission badly misjudged the talent on this team and where they were, made an awful offer to Brad Richards and f'ed up the ROR (not just the risk of losing picks but being dumb enough to make the offer sheet.) There is no reason to think going forward that they are going to suddenly gain hockey sense and start making good decisions now.

I get that the team has made some mistakes and if I lived my life based on the mistakes i've made in the past there would be no hope for the future. People can and do change. That said it appears whatever I say going forward won't change your mind so i'll leave it at that.

They aren't giving up good it just means more secondary/crap players to overpay and help us get to 10th spot. Meaningful, young players which this team needs are not going to be bought out.

You are speculating as to what players are given buyouts. If teams want to hold onto their core players some will have to rid themselves of prospects who are on entry level contracts or those looking to sign their second contracts. Or teams buying out some of their good players in an attempt to make room for their prospects. To overpay there would have to be a bidding war - something I don't see happening with many teams shedding contracts to meet the lower cap.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by Walter Reed

Esentially stating the Flames statements of making the playoffs next season were unrealistic and disingenuousness to the fan base. While every team's goal is to make make the playoffs and win the cup he can't foresee the prospect pieces in the pipeline necessary to change this in immediate future. Steinberg said Ottawa rebounded after missing the playoffs in one season. Francis rebuttal was the Flames will have missed for the previous four seasons not one as Ottawa had selling their future for temporary bandaid solutions. Said while the process of a total rebuild will be trying and painful it is necessary. He completely demolished Steinbergs arguments to soft-sell the Flames org wistful notions.

I think that Francis purposefully took the 'literal' approach with the playoff statement (or mandate). When I listened to the press conference, it wasn't a 'we better be there and we will be doing whatever we can to get in' sentiment. It was more of: "We don't want to make excuses for failing next season. We expect our players to play hard every game."

I can't foresee the Flames suddenly loading up on expensive vets, and making a few trades giving up some of their future for trying to win next season. I just don't see it, and I don't think that is what the 'mandate' was. Probably just more Feaster blowing a lot of hot air as he usually does.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Dion

I get that the team has made some mistakes and if I lived my life based on the mistakes i've made in the past there would be no hope for the future. People can and do change. That said it appears whatever I say going forward won't change your mind so i'll leave it at that.

I think there is a big difference between making mistakes in life and making mistakes in one of the most competitive jobs in the world. I know that if I made as many and as big mistakes as Feaster had I would be canned. I imagine that is the same for most people and at the very least there wouldn't be much confidence in that person going forward.

You are speculating as to what players are given buyouts. If teams want to hold onto their core players some will have to rid themselves of prospects who are on entry level contracts or those looking to sign their second contracts. Or teams buying out some of their good players in an attempt to make room for their prospects. To overpay there would have to be a bidding war - something I don't see happening with many teams shedding contracts to meet the lower cap.

Considering how many bad contracts there are for older veterans I can't see a single team buying out a valuable player when they could buy someone else out or trade that guy for a good return.

Any prospect on entry level deal that is let go is going to be crap.

The cap isn't getting cut in half no good players are going to be bought out.

[sa226]

I think it just depends how the draft goes

Why do we need to suck for 5 years? We are probably going to be bad for awhile, but why do we need to be?

If we draft a franchise player, why can't we just go with that?

With the old guard on its way out, the young guys are going to get a legitimate chance.

We have Brodie and Gio with some decent guys in the pipeline on defence.

Baertchi, Backlund, Gaudreau, Horak, Jankowski on their way up front.

I think by Sept of 2013 we are going to have 75 percent of the pieces that will bring us back to respectability.

With those pieces in place why not still try and be competitive? And just take the likely high draft picks as gravy?

As long as we don't mortgage that future for the present competitiveness.

[longsuffering]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

Some of the takes on what Feaster said is really rich.

Does anyone literally believe that the next moves the Flames will be making is:

St. Louis 1st round draft pick + Pittsburgh's 1st round draft pick to St. Louis for Bouwmeester.

Re-sign Jarome for 4 years at 7 million.

Trade Calgary's 1st round pick for a 34 or so 2nd line center reclamation project

This organization is rebuilding. Not hard to see. Do they want to mandate: "We are trying to draft #1 next year! huh huh huh"

The order of every season from now on is "Make Playoffs". Will they sacrifice the future in order to do so? NO. "NO POST APEX PLAYERS".

Once they make the playoffs, their goal after that will probably shift into: "Win the Cup" - it is at this point that you hope they make intelligent moves in trading away SOME of the future to enhance the 'win now' - as long as they have a viable shot at it.

Just like Blue says: "Stop, Breathe and Think!"

I honestly hope you're right.

I'm more in the "fool me once ..." camp.

[moon]

Originally Posted by sa226

I think it just depends how the draft goes

Why do we need to suck for 5 years? We are probably going to be bad for awhile, but why do we need to be?

If we draft a franchise player, why can't we just go with that?

With the old guard on its way out, the young guys are going to get a legitimate chance.

We have Brodie and Gio with some decent guys in the pipeline on defence.

Baertchi, Backlund, Gaudreau, Horak, Jankowski on their way up front.

I think by Sept of 2013 we are going to have 75 percent of the pieces that will bring us back to respectability.

With those pieces in place why not still try and be competitive? And just take the likely high draft picks as gravy?

As long as we don't mortgage that future for the present competitiveness.

Mainly because looking at other teams with similar lack of talent and NHL ready guys that is how long it takes. Sure it could be faster with luck but that seems unlikely.

As for the guys you mentioned half (Backlund, Baertschi, Horak) have shown nothing to indicate they will be difference makers at the NHL level and the other half (Jankowski, Gaudreau) haven't shown anything to indicate they will even be in the NHL in the next two years. Relying on them to turn it around seems unlikely.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I'm not a hater when it comes to Feaster. And I'm fine with the returns the Flames got in the Iginla and Bouwmeester trades.

However, the "wait until next September before predicting gloom and doom" has been trotted out for four years now. Actually, it's more like:

"wait for September... wait for the trade deadline... wait for the draft... wait for July 1... wait for September... wait for the trade deadline...."

Like I said, I'm okay with how things have gone down with this team for the last month or so. But shooting down any criticism with "wait until <....>" has gotten really, really old.

If the team was heading the direction of past teams with aging vets and not trading your star players when they should be, I wouldn't be saying wait until September. This time it appears the team is headed in a different direction with the trades of Ignla and Bouwmeester plus the admission of Feaster that they were chasing fools gold and that they will target younger players.

I'm excited about the changes being made and feel we should give this new direction a chance before we tear it apart. Our #1 pick could land us an impact player.......

It might also be nice if those who - correctly - predicted the Flames plummeting fortunes three years ago were acknowledged as being right, instead of derided as being negative. At some point, being honest should carry more weight than believing whatever makes you feel good. This franchise would probably be in a lot better shape today if it had more of the former and less of the latter.

I agree

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by longsuffering

I honestly hope you're right.

I'm more in the "fool me once ..." camp.

I think it is fair to feel that way... it has been a tough 3 years, no question. I think that as long as the fans are patient next season (and the remainder of this season), they won't do anything stupid. If the fans react by not supporting this team (or booing them), then I would expect (unfortunately) knee-jerk reactions from management.

I think the Flames don't intend to go too 'deep' in removing bodies, and if you look back at their moves for the last 12 months, they have all been of the 'younger player' variety when trying to acquire them. I think their "rock solid plan" was:

1)Remain competitive by identifying and signing free agents that can fit holes now, and into the future.
2)Focus on rebuilding the team slowly through the draft or trades, targeting young players.

Needless to say, they failed miserably this season. I just can't see how they would possibly spin a positive angle in the media about spending some of their futures on players to help them win now. I just don't think they are THAT incompetent (and I really don't like Feaster).

I do think their rebuild will be quicker than the Oilers', but based purely on SEEMINGLY drafting better than them, having a bit more in the pipeline than the Oilers did when they started theirs, and not tearing it down too badly (still have younger contributing guys to build around, and to support the influx of young bodies).

Whose to say what will really happen? I would just be surprised if they just deviated from this track that they have moved onto now.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by sa226

I think it just depends how the draft goes

Why do we need to suck for 5 years? We are probably going to be bad for awhile, but why do we need to be?

If we draft a franchise player, why can't we just go with that?

With the old guard on its way out, the young guys are going to get a legitimate chance.

We have Brodie and Gio with some decent guys in the pipeline on defence.

Baertchi, Backlund, Gaudreau, Horak, Jankowski on their way up front.

I think by Sept of 2013 we are going to have 75 percent of the pieces that will bring us back to respectability.

With those pieces in place why not still try and be competitive? And just take the likely high draft picks as gravy?

As long as we don't mortgage that future for the present competitiveness.

Because the Flames don't just need a franchise player, they need everything, a new goalie, a franchise center, a decent 2nd line center, a first line defensive pairing at least one decent winger to go with the franchise center, if the Flames score home runs on all three 1st round picks they will still be short a player or two.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by MissTeeks

Do we get a show on Sportsnet about our rebuild too? What would ours be called? "Fire Sale"? Not quite the same ring to it as "Oil Change".

"Rising from the Ashes"

[longsuffering]

Originally Posted by moon

Mainly because looking at other teams with similar lack of talent and NHL ready guys that is how long it takes. Sure it could be faster with luck but that seems unlikely.

As for the guys you mentioned half (Backlund, Baertschi, Horak) have shown nothing to indicate they will be difference makers at the NHL level and the other half (Jankowski, Gaudreau) haven't shown anything to indicate they will even be in the NHL in the next two years. Relying on them to turn it around seems unlikely.

Perhaps. You can look at the glass as half empty and see nothing but doom and gloom. Put me in the glass half full camp who is looking forward to seeing how or if some of these prospects we suddenly seem to have can develop.

Will there be growing pains? Absolutely.

Will some of our prospects be busts? Absolutely, but I'll wait for that to happen rather than expect it to happen.

I'm not expecting a quick turnaround. If the team works hard next season and the players stick up for each other, I'll be satisfied.

[nik-]

The "playoffs next year" comment was ridiculous, and Francis deservedly blew them up on it. Hearing Steinberg try to spin that today made me embarrassed for him. Both his new cohost and Francis we're just dumbfounded at Steinberg's response.

I find a lot of what Francis says to be "look at me", but he was pretty bang on in his comments this afternoon.

[Vinny01]

I think Feaster over-estimates the players he thinks are going to be available this summer. He thinks he is going to walk in there with 2 extra firsts and trade those to land a proven player that is 23-26. I think some guys will be available but not franchise changers. We will get hopefully our next Franchise player with our pick but he will be a ways off from making a huge impact.

This team is screwed for at least 2 more years probably 3. Don't be talking playoffs next year