[News] Calgary Flames Garbage Bag Day Media Availability 10AM

[DazzlinDino]

Originally Posted by djsFlames

There's no comparison to the capitals. They were atop the regular standings perennially and just needed time to break through on the playoff side of it. Flames continually struggle or plateau down the stretch into playoffs and aside from one season where everything went right, are firmly a bubble club. They haven't yet figured out how to place high in the regular season as a baseline and have been a group for several years. That tells you its a case of the team just not having a high ceiling due to merely good but no elite skill.

As a manager you have to stay impartial & intellectually honest enough to make the best decisions for your team. Definitely got the impression Brad was too invested in the core and believed they could accomplish things they didn't have the tools to. If he managed to add a couple Toffoli-level wingers (partly by not making that mistake on Neal) then they maybe could've done it by committee. But with just Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk-Monahan doing the heavy lifting, there is not enough skill and consistency there to get it done.

To boot we stuck with the players we picked up even after they were doing hardly anything on the ice for the whole season. No wonder our core guys had a low GAF meter. The guys that came in didn't push the team.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

If you are ownership, when do you start to question letting the team spend to the cap with such mediocre results?

Why not leave some buffer to allow for flexibility to make upgrade trades throughout the season and if the team sucks ass sell your cap space for draft picks.

Wouldn't that help turn things around faster than the current MO?

Pretty much everyone has a cap team these days

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Pretty much everyone has a cap team these days

Ducks, Caps, Stars, Sabres, Sharks, Yotes, Hawks. All close to or at the cap (some using LTIR).

[combustiblefuel]

Originally Posted by saillias

Just listened to a few of these. I got Tkachuk right after Lucic and the contrast was something.

Tkachuk is furious he didn't play enough, on one hand was careful with his wording to accept responsibility for not being very good, but his bitterness if not entitlement really comes through. He believes he should've played more sooner and that's a reason he wasn't very good and the team wasn't very good.

Just my takeaway. Definitely changes my impression of Tkachuk.

Originally Posted by djsFlames

Given Tkachuks tone/evaluation of the season and the fact that he showed up only when it was too late, and Gaudreau's enthusiasm to re-sign, I'm aboard the Tkachuk+ for Eichel train.

He still a Tkachuk. Does it really surprise anyone he is like that? Keith was the same way If I recall right. I would get rid of him before the next contract negotiations. I have a feeling the apple didn't fall far from the tree. His dad will be in his ear most likely.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

If you are ownership, when do you start to question letting the team spend to the cap with such mediocre results?

Why not leave some buffer to allow for flexibility to make upgrade trades throughout the season and if the team sucks ass sell your cap space for draft picks.

Wouldn't that help turn things around faster than the current MO?

Agreed. Cap Space is the one asset that goes undervalued. Not every year is a good free agency year.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Listening to Brad disagree with Darryl on where expectations for this should have been is telling.

Treliving has fallen in love with his own roster. He, and his pro scouting staff are bad at their jobs in comparison to the rest of the league.

I laughed when Brad mentioned the Capitals as a team that didn’t win until their core was older…like, what? The Capitals were a dominate team that just couldn’t win the big game until their players were older - that is not what is happening here. Holy hell.

He says he didn’t have any expansion problems with Vegas but does now because of team growth. What is he talking about? The team is every bit as bad today as it was then. The players that he has to risk today aren’t difference makers. He doesn’t sound like a GM that is aware his team has won 3 playoff games in the last 6 seasons.

I am laughing at you for using a verb in place of an adjective.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Pretty much everyone has a cap team these days

One team has figured out how to exceed by the cap by about $10 million.

[Steve Bozek]

Originally Posted by Rutuu

I've really been thinking about the Draft and the Flames. Our talent evaluation has improved under the last few GMs with players graduating to the big club. One thing I've noticed is that it always felt like we've given our scouts fewer picks than other organizations. Now since this isn't the Super Weather Thread, numbers matter, so I added up all the picks under the Cliff Fletcher (Calgary tenure, not Atlanta) and Brad Treliving. The results are interesting as we were in the top 4 teams under Fletcher for the number of picks, and under Treliving we're in the bottom third. Two other teams at the bottom, are "win-now" teams with superstars they're surrounding perennially. We are not that team.

I haven't done Risebrough, Coates, Button, Sutter, or Feaster yet...but the trend is there.

Add to that the fact that Fletcher had much more respect for NCAA players than most of the ex-NHL player knuckle-dragging scouts and GMs. Besides all the draft picks, Fletcher signed some great free agent college players who played key roles for the Flames in the ‘80’s.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I am laughing at you for using a verb in place of an adjective.

You are just bias.

[Hackey]

Brad compared this team to the Caps? Okay, I've officially lost all hope. These next few years are going to suck. It's the Iginla era all over again. Trying to squeeze every last drop out of a team on the decline in hopes of maybe grabbing the 8th seed.

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by Hackey

Brad compared this team to the Caps? Okay, I've officially lost all hope. These next few years are going to suck. It's the Iginla era all over again. Trying to squeeze every last drop out of a team on the decline in hopes of maybe grabbing the 8th seed.

I am of the mind they should try one or two major shake ups to the core this season and if that doesn't work tear it all down and rebuild. It's only one season and it would be interesting to see who is left and how they respond. I wish it wasn't Treliving doing the shake up, but it is what it is. If the team starts floundering after the shake up then start the sell off.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

I am of the mind they should try one or two major shake ups to the core this season and if that doesn't work tear it all down and rebuild. It's only one season and it would be interesting to see who is left and how they respond. I wish it wasn't Treliving doing the shake up, but it is what it is. If the team starts floundering after the shake up then start the sell off.

I'm curious what you mean by major shakeup?

Trading two of Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund? Something like that?

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

I am of the mind they should try one or two major shake ups to the core this season and if that doesn't work tear it all down and rebuild. It's only one season and it would be interesting to see who is left and how they respond. I wish it wasn't Treliving doing the shake up, but it is what it is. If the team starts floundering after the shake up then start the sell off.

If its only one year I'll be elated. Knowing this organization though it will probably be more like 3 years.

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

I'm curious what you mean by major shakeup?

Trading two of Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, Backlund? Something like that?

Yeah something bigger is needed to change this team up. It has felt very stale since the Colorado series. No one pushing each other at all anymore. Everyone seems to be way to comfortable. Tkachuk + whatever for Eichel would be a nice start but who knows if that's just a pipe dream.

[Wolfman]

How much would this team suffer if Gio was not back next year?

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Wolfman

How much would this team suffer if Gio was not back next year?

Depends. Does he get to play with Tanev or Rasmus?

Like when he was with Brodie, he’s a different player when he can trust his partner and play his game

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by Wolfman

How much would this team suffer if Gio was not back next year?

Use his cap space for something else. Taylor Hall.

Honestly I would look at bringing back Hamonic as a number 5/6 guy for the price he’ll be worth. He seems like the guy that Sutter would love, and still wants to be in western Canada.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by combustiblefuel

He still a Tkachuk. Does it really surprise anyone he is like that? Keith was the same way If I recall right. I would get rid of him before the next contract negotiations. I have a feeling the apple didn't fall far from the tree. His dad will be in his ear most likely.

I find the entitlement hard to wrap my head around. Why does playing harder and preparing for games better = more ice time not make logical sense to these guys?

Did having a successful, big name NHLer as a dad really get to your head that much that you honestly don't think you have to earn your opportunities in a performance/result-driven business?

Maybe such is the perception you have growing up around the NHL. Maybe you really do think you just belong there and should play by right.

Genuinely am speculating, I don't know cause that would be an unusual and special kind of upbringing for sure, so maybe it comes with some out of left field beliefs as a player.

I do get the sense that parents pushing for special treatment of their kids by coaches is just commonplace these days.

[Jimdon]

I'm so tired of Treliving justifying the lack of changes to the core by saying "you can't make changes for the sake of making changes, it has to make sense." He had said this over and over again...

The team isn't good, it's not good enough to win. Making changes that make the team worse just means the team will continue to not be good, as it is now. Chasing 8th place on the off chance that your "good but underachieving" sic team might make the playoffs is making the organization worse every year, bit by bit. There is ni linear improvement since he's taken over that
Should put any kind of faith in his process or vision. The Flames miss the playoffs as often as they make it every other year but we are told to be scared of getting worse...

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Jimdon

I'm so tired of Treliving justifying the lack of changes to the core by saying "you can't make changes for the sake of making changes, it has to make sense." He had said this over and over again...

He's right though. You just don't trade someone for the sake of getting rid of them. You need to be getting someone back that you think will make your team better.

That's not to say that I think he's doing a good job because I don't. I would have fired him already.