[GDT] Chicago Blackhawks at Calgary Flames 7:00pm TV: SNW, CHSN, ESPN+ - RADIO SN960

[stemit14]

Originally Posted by Hockey-and_stuff

Oh yeah, they should absolutely be ahead of us since they had two extra years to stockpile young talent and assets.

To me, the Flames need to build up high end talent in the 18-22 year old range and the 22-26 year old range.

That should be who you're ready to offer long term deals and money too.

It's harsh and I'm painting with broad strokes here but anyone 27 and older shouldn't be looked at as a part of the contention window. They should be played in key roles to increase their value then sold off as their contracts expire, with the idea that the elite talent you acquire at the top of the draft can develop and replace these aging players in the next 4-6 years.

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It is a sign that the flames likely have a long way to go in the rebuild… while the young guys (Zary, Honzek, Wolf, Klapka, Coronato) have looked good, most of the scoring and key roles up front have come from the veterans still (Kadri, Backlund, Mantha, Kuzmenko, Coleman, Huberdeau). When those veterans are more of the complimentary players and the younger guys make up most of the top 6 forwards and top four defencemen, the team will be on their way out of the rebuild.

The rebuild could still happen faster than some think though… it requires the flames to hit big on their next two drafts IMO. No small task but if they get a #1 and a #2 center out of the next two drafts, they could be looking ready to start to get better.

Zary-xxxx-Coronato
Honzek-xxxx-Sharangovich
Huberdeau-Posposil-Gridin
Klapka-Kadri/Backlund-xxxx

That’s just a very rough outline of what the team could be in 3 years… with the missing spots filled with (potentially) guys drafted in 2025 and 2026. Obviously that won’t be what it is… guys will get traded or just won’t develop how we all hope. But there is the potential for things to work out this way as the forward line up. It assumes the vets with expiring deals are not re-signed (except potentially Backlund) and the vets with long contracts are not traded (Huberdeau, Kadri and Sharangovich).

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

The Flames rebuild has only begun. Characterizing it as a retool is how Calgary finished middle of the pack for so long.

I like how you cherry picked only a single part of my post and not the rest where I further detailed where I think they went wrong.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

The Flames rebuild has only begun. Characterizing it as a retool is how Calgary finished middle of the pack for so long.

What have you seen that makes you think management is in this for the long haul? I think they see this year as the bottom and I'm sure the start they are having is only encouraging them.

Way I see it, we get a top 5-10 pick this year. Hopefully get another 1st rounder at the TDL. Spend two firsts and two seconds all on centers.

Then they start filling in holes with cap space next year.

[Ba'alzamon]

Originally Posted by DJones

What have you seen that makes you think management is in this for the long haul? I think they see this year as the bottom and I'm sure the start they are having is only encouraging them.

I would hope that they learned from last time....

[Hockey-and_stuff]

Originally Posted by DJones

What have you seen that makes you think management is in this for the long haul? I think they see this year as the bottom and I'm sure the start they are having is only encouraging them.



Way I see it, we get a top 5-10 pick this year. Hopefully get another 1st rounder at the TDL. Spend two firsts and two seconds all on centers.



Then they start filling in holes with cap space next year.

Delete this before Murray Edwards sees it lol

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[Paulie Walnuts]

Nope this is a rebuild, this is biggest selloff of players I have seen from Flames management, and more to come.

He also stuck to his plan signing 1–2-year deals and didn't really go free agent shopping.

I think this time it's different, Conroy has been around a long time to see the missteps previous regimes have made, and he seems to be doing things the right way.

He has commented on how Sutter gave Dion away for scraps. Treliving working solo. Not picking enough. A lot of that is changing.

I can't see him saying yup its time and goes out and spends cap space on aging free agents, and trading away picks.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by DJones

What have you seen that makes you think management is in this for the long haul? I think they see this year as the bottom and I'm sure the start they are having is only encouraging them.

Way I see it, we get a top 5-10 pick this year. Hopefully get another 1st rounder at the TDL. Spend two firsts and two seconds all on centers.

Then they start filling in holes with cap space next year.

Say one of those players turns into your franchise centerpiece, there's still so much more work to be done. That's why building it back up after one more draft would be shortsighted. We probably need 2-3 more drafts with lottery picks and excess draft capital to properly stock the roster with upper echelon talent. And even after that, I hope they hang on to picks much more tightly than past front office regimes.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Nope this is a rebuild, this is biggest selloff of players I have seen from Flames management, and more to come.

He also stuck to his plan signing 1–2-year deals and didn't really go free agent shopping.

I think this time it's different, Conroy has been around a long time to see the missteps previous regimes have made, and he seems to be doing things the right way.

He has commented on how Sutter gave Dion away for scraps. Treliving working solo. Not picking enough. A lot of that is changing.

I can't see him saying yup its time and goes out and spends cap space on aging free agents, and trading away picks.

Sure, I fully expect them to keep their picks and not sign any more aging UFAs. Keep targeting 22-25 year olds as they have been. You can do all that while trying to win. Hell I think for smaller markets that should be the norm.

I have no doubt Conroy wants to resign Andersson rather than trade him away. If he gets some center prospects, the days of being bottom feeders could be over right there in their minds. We're almost at the point that we'll start losing as much talent as we draft if we continue to not be competitive.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by howard_the_duck

Say one of those players turns into your franchise centerpiece, there's still so much more work to be done. That's why building it back up after one more draft would be shortsighted. We probably need 2-3 more drafts with lottery picks and excess draft capital to properly stock the roster with upper echelon talent. And even then, I hope they hang on to picks much more tightly than past front office regimes.

I don’t see the two approaches as necessarily opposite. Another year restocking the cupboards and trading away high performing players for picks. Then next year you move into the building and augmenting phase. They’ll still probably be bad, maybe worse, so you’re still looking at another year or two of high picks but you’re building in the process so that you don’t end up with a top-heavy but depthless roster. And once the young guys are ready to go 2-3 years from now, the rest of your team is ready.

[NegativeSpace]

Honestly it depends on how bad the team actually is moving forward. If Popisil and Zary continue to pop and advance then we may not be bad enough to totally bottom out. You c a sabotage your team either. Keep your picks and make smart decisions. If they are competitive this year then I just don’t want them to resign older vets to long contracts. If you get them for a couple more years then maybe. We have young forwards that seem on the verge already. It’s been impressive the change already in the roster.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Excuse me, but the Calgary Flames got the best defenseman of the 2024 draft.

I'd like to think you are right, but the experts don't agree with that.

At least not yet.

Time will tell.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

I'd like to think you are right, but the experts don't agree with that.

At least not yet.

Time will tell.

The experts that ranked RV over Tkachuk

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by dammage79

I like how you cherry picked only a single part of my post and not the rest where I further detailed where I think they went wrong.

Because you said if they get a couple of centres their rebuild is complete.

They get a couple of centres and they then have two players as part of their core going forward. Their rebuild will still be in the early stages.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

I'd like to think you are right, but the experts don't agree with that.

At least not yet.

Time will tell.

Seems like Parekh is viewed as having as high of ceiling as anyone in the draft. Others are just more developed so it's less risk.

[DJones]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Because you said if they get a couple of centres their rebuild is complete.

They get a couple of centres and they then have two players as part of their core going forward. Their rebuild will still be in the early stages.

I'm siding with the other guy. They get two young centers and they're in win now mode.

[Infinit47]

I don't think anyone is saying the rebuild is done, but we have limited assets to sell high on after last year's sell off. So at some point they need to look at trying to get better.

I expect we suck the next two years, draft as much as possible and as high as possible, then evaluate in the third year. Might have enough to go for it, or may have flubbed all our drafts and need to bottom out more.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by stemit14

It is a sign that the flames likely have a long way to go in the rebuild… while the young guys (Zary, Honzek, Wolf, Klapka, Coronato) have looked good, most of the scoring and key roles up front have come from the veterans still (Kadri, Backlund, Mantha, Kuzmenko, Coleman, Huberdeau)...

Don't look now, but 24-year-old Martin Posposil is tied for the team lead in points, and Zary is second, alongside Kadri, Mantha and Kuzmenko. Both of them have been outscoring Backlund and Coleman.

[stemit14]

I think the question will be how Conroy handles trading pieces this season. Obviously it’s very early and the flames could end up being as bad as many have assumed. In which case, trades will be very straight forward I think - pretty much any veteran could be had for the right price. However, how does Conroy handle the season if they aren’t bad this year? I don’t think he will look to trade young pieces or picks no matter what this year. The question is focused on trading vets/rental pieces for picks/prospects.

Take this scenario… it’s early January and the flames are sitting comfortably in a playoff spot. Andersson is having a career year. Kadri is having another great season. Some teams call Conroy willing to meet his asking price for these players that he may have established in pre-season likely based on the assumption this team would be finishing low in the standings this year. Does he make the trade? I’m assuming these teams are offering him exactly what he asked for to start the season.

The obvious answer I’m sure most might say is that Conroy tells them the price has gone up because the team is doing well and he is not eager to trade players away. Makes sense. But how much does it go up? Would you want him to say no to a package offered in January that would be considered an overpayment in June?

Again, many people will say absolutely not… we need to build for the future and trading vets for young prospects and picks is the priority. But that is easier said than done when you have coaching staff, players, fans and an owner that would all rather keep winning games.

We saw something similar to this with Markstrom during the season last year… the flames price was high because he was their MVP at the time and the flames were close to a playoff spot. The price ended up being so high that the trade was delayed to the summer. Not sure if Conroy’s price ended up going down at that point or if New Jersey’s offer came up. But I think that was an example of a player’s value to the team’s short term success increasing the asking price to the point that teams were not willing to make the trade. I’m not saying Conroy was wrong to do that… I was happy with the return in the end and I’m happy with how the rebuild is going.

[Paulie Walnuts]

We don't need 2 centers; we need a clear cut #1 center. Without one we won't be winning.

The most likely way to get one is through the draft.

[PepsiFree]

How’s parking at the Dome these days? Are both (north and south) entrances open to the public lots?

I know it’s crazy getting out afterwards but more so wondering if there’s any issue getting into the lots without a crazy delay.