[News] Francis: One-year faceplant

[Badgers Nose]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Team Tank Francis is Best Francis

Tough times make for strange bedfellows.

Originally Posted by Rutuu

Whenever I see an article like this from Francis, it feels like the ownership / management layer above Conroy floating ideas to the fanbase to see the reaction.

Yeah, it really does seem that way. Especially the laughably optimistic 'one year faceplant.'

Because:

A. we've been face-planting for a few seasons
B. any reasonable person can see we are more than one draft away from being a contending team again

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

It's pretty crazy what drafting this generation's Bobby Orr can do for a team.

Not to mention a top 3 player in the world on a team friendly contract (MacKinnon) and a team willing to give up an unprotected first for a previous high draft pick (Duchene -> #3 Overall pick Byram & Turris ->Girard). Plus having Landeskog on top of everything else and having the steal of a draft in Rantanen as well.

The Avalanche were bad for the better part of a decade and collected a number of quality assets who contributed to their cup team and are still key contributors to a contender. The idea that they went from being bad to being good in a few years isn't accurate at all.

[bigrangy]

Originally Posted by rohara66

Lets hope we're the 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche!

Yeah we’d just need to have already drafted the best player in the league 3 years ago and then draft the 2nd best player in the league this year.

This is a very false hope.

[Finger Cookin]

We need to stop giving Scooter topics for his articles

[Sylvanfan]

At this point of the cycle the Flames would be more comparable to the 2009 Avalanche.

[Rhett44]

1 year will not do anything. Celebrini did not instantly make the Sharks a playoff team. Bedard did not instantly make Chicago good. Not even McDavid turned the Oilers around the first year.

I just don't see how they are expecting just a 1 year free fall. Unless they are planning on keeping all the vets who will be regressing in a couple years anyways.

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by Badgers Nose

Tough times make for strange bedfellows.



Yeah, it really does seem that way. Especially the laughably optimistic 'one year faceplant.'

Because:

A. we've been face-planting for a few seasons
B. any reasonable person can see we are more than one draft away from being a contending team again

Makes you wonder what the RCR or CNRL version of Francis would be writing right now?

RCR Francis: "It's common for a North American ski hill operator to have a one year face plant on safety, that brings in a 10yr renaissance of quality preventative maintenance scheduling."

CNRL Francis: "The Canadian patch could use a one year royalty review; scare enough foreign capital away for another 10yr window that CNRL could lean into to acquire Canadian properties unabated. Doing it in this price environment has the added benefit of helping keep salaries low for investors!"

[bubbsy]

One year part is a bit stupid.

This team will be as bad or worse next year as you replace whoever you trade out (andersson, kadri, Coleman, etc) with younger prospects or fill ins.

A rebuild takes a few years, we’ve wasted 2 years toiling in the middle, that’s why some intelligent decision making is critical.

[HOOT]

One year worth of face planting isn’t going to cut it. Stanley Cup runner ups for the last 20 years doesn’t look much different besides a few teams. The goal should be to have a young exciting team by 2027-28 new building season, not a competitive one.

[rohara66]

Originally Posted by bigrangy

Yeah we’d just need to have already drafted the best player in the league 3 years ago and then draft the 2nd best player in the league this year.

This is a very false hope.

Mackinnon hadnt done #### prior 2017

But yes, clearly we don’t have a Mackinnon.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

It's fine. If Murray wants to frame it as a one year faceplant, so be it.

Then we'll do another one year faceplant next year.

Whatever framing/wording gets these stubborn bums up top to go along with what this team desperately needs.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by HOOT

Chicago won the Cup in 2010. It was the third season that both Kane and Toews were in the NHL (3 years after Kane was drafted, and 4 after Toews).

Toews is also missing from Chicago for 2013 and 2015.

[HOOT]

Originally Posted by getbak

Chicago won the Cup in 2010. It was the third season that both Kane and Toews were in the NHL (3 years after Kane was drafted, and 4 after Toews).

Toews is also missing from Chicago for 2013 and 2015.

Not surprised I missed something. Was just a quick exercise. Not sure where I got Carolina 2010 though

[Finger Cookin]

Well, we're well on our way to having a young team in place for 27-28, and I guess routinely getting your faces caved in fits some definition of the word "exciting". By 27-28, we need hope.

[Calgary4LIfe]

I don't see this as a one-season 'faceplant'. I don't see Calgary floundering for the next decade as they simply have been drafting too well now. However, I don't think enough prospects will have 'arrived' by next season to push them out of the cellar. Definitely if all of Andersson, Kadri and a couple of other vets are traded-out, I see another last-place finish (or thereabouts - who knows what other team decides to tear it down).


I see it as a 2 year bottoming-out, and then when the new arena opens, a bottom 10 finish, and then perhaps into the bubble-territory. I just hope that Conroy doesn't try to accelerate it due to the pressures of trying to have a competitive team when the building opens. Just sell hope that season, and combined with the new fancy building, I think people will accept it. Either way, win or lose, the Flames that year should be much more entertaining to watch as there will be more skill and speed on display.

[BACKCHECK!!!]

I don’t care how they sell it or frame it.

They need to trade Kadri before the trade deadline.

For me, that’s the litmus test of whether or not there’s any real hope for the flames becoming an actual good team.

IMO they’ve already screwed up the Andersson trade. I don’t know what kind of market there is for Coleman, he might be worth keeping around to shelter the kids if he won’t bring back more than a 2nd rounder or something.

But Kadri is a hot commodity, he’s playing way better than a man his age has any right to, and his value is going to fall off a cliff at any moment. It’s just such an unquestionable and obvious move for any team even considering building for the future.

We need a high draft pick, but we need everybody else’s picks too.

Get er dun Conny.

[FlamesAddiction]

No, you definitely don't faceplant one season then turn it around immediately the next season. Even most of the top prospects drafted in the top 3-5 typically need at least 2-3 seasons to progress and become complete players at the NHL level, and you need more than one of those.

There is often a point too where you know the tanked team has already drafted enough talent that they will be competitive in relatively short order, but because of the lag time, they still get another high pick or two while things come together. A lot of these teams end up really getting overcompensated in the long run.

[Itse]

This is once again a point to hate on Treliving. He left us with a bad team and almost nothing in the pipeline, meaning there's no way to build a competitive team any time soon. Sure we got some pretty good kids, but no one who's significantly better than what the other teams have.

We need to draft high multiple years in a row, hit gold with those picks, then wait for the youngings to start carrying the team into competitiveness. That's not a 1 or 2 year thing.

Outside of a miracle, we're looking at 3-5 bad seasons (including this one) before even a chance of relevance, let alone competitiveness.

Right now we desperately need more draft picks. It's just really hard to gain a competitive upper hand over other teams if you don't have more picks than them. Just drafting high isn't enough, because other teams will also draft high, and many other teams already have young superstars ready to match up against what we have. A McKenna can push us back into the middle of the pack like Iginla did, but isn't likely to get us above it.

That's the main reason we need to sell our vets. It doesn't matter for the tank, this team is a bottom dweller regardless. It matters because every draft pick is a chance to draft one extra good player to us and away from the rest of the league.

[GreenLantern2814]

The idea that this is going to be some one year anomaly feels wildly optimistic to me.

[bluejays]

It's never a good idea to tank for just one year. Even if you do get a top talent they need a supporting cast to feed and build off of. To me, 3 years at the bottom ensures some high picks to develop and build a core. Every good team has 2-3 core forwards to get the lions share of points. Gotta strive for that. Right now the team doesn't have those players.