The Team That Feaster Built

[Walter Reed]

Originally Posted by Hanna Sniper

The only thing Feaster gets credit for was having the worst team in history, thankfully for us that shortcoming enabled use to be in a better drafting position and reap the rewards of that

Since Feaster acknowledged he was hands off at the draft table, he doesn't get crest for someone else work.

Was it not Feaster who also brought in Weisbrod, Hartley & company as well as Craig Conroy?

[waner]

Originally Posted by Walter Reed

Feaster was not without worts but the success the Flames are experiencing stems entirely with the Feaster management team. Burke is the beneficery of JF works.

Feaster had nothing to do with Gio, Brodie or Hiller the three key players for Flames success this year so it hardly stems entirely from Feaster and its arguable whether he is more responsible than Sutter/Trevilling and Burke.

[Walter Reed]

Originally Posted by waner

Feaster had nothing to do with Gio, Brodie or Hiller the three key players for Flames success this year so it hardly stems entirely from Feaster and its arguable whether he is more responsible than Sutter/Trevilling and Burke.

Fair point. Perhaps "entirely" is was a overly endorsing term, but the installation of some critical people who assisted in drafting numerous promising players already paying significant dividends on the club as well as a coaching staff who have quickly reversed a sliding trend was a positive accomplishment given his short tenure IMO.

[gvitaly]

Feaster's moves do have a lot to do with the team we have on the ice right now, but his management simply didn't inspire any confidence. It started with a 1st pick(Erixon) that didn't want to play for our organization. It continued with the best center outside the NHL that didn't really play center(Červenka), and a huge offer to Brad Richards(luckily he chose the Rangers). Meanwhile, it finished with the ROR offer-sheet, the Iginla NMC (after agreeing on a trade with BOS), and the promise to use our cap space to gain picks(only to find out no one is interested).

As other posters have mentioned, Feaster overhyped a lot of our moves/roster/play during his time here. Once those overhyped moves came short it simply inspired the feeling of not good enough. He even admitted so himself, especially in regards to Baertschi.

In regards to the draft, they did a great job in 2011. As for 2012 is too early to tell because Jankowski is a long term project, Sieloff had to battle it out with injuries, and Gillies is a goalie(great potential so far, but with goaltenders it is very difficult to tell). In 2013 we probably had the best draft in the NHL, and three 1st round picks had a lot to do with that.

Finally, a lot of our roster was built by trial and error on Feaster's part. In large it was possible, because of no expectations from this team. Feaster brought in a lot of unknowns into this team, some worked some didn't- Modin, Horak, P.Leblond, Babchuk*, Cervenka, B. Jones, Wesgarth,Comeau, Begin, Butler, Byron, Ramo, McGrattan, Berra, D. Jones, O'Brien,Smith, Galiardi, Russell, Colborne. (I am probably still missing a few but you get my point).
*resigned to an extension
I just don't think that so many 'projects' would've been possible for a playoff team.

[Coach]

I would say Berra worked out. He drove competition with Ramo and netted a 2nd rounder. Although I think that was a Burke move and a good one.

[savardandjokinen]

Originally Posted by terminator

I guess its Feaster's turn to be on this side considering how he won the cup in Tampa.

Also never forget the fact that, however great he built the team, he still messed up on what should've been the teams biggest tickets: Iginla and Bouwmeister.

I feel that if we kept JBO and iggy we would of had the 8th or 9th overall pick and we wouldn't of had monahan. I feel Brodie and gio wouldn't have the time to produce because bouwmeester would take on bigger roles. I think if we still had feaster we would have a same look as if right now until the vets come back from injury. I think Sven would be on the team as a regular and if he got played like feaster wanted him too, he would have potential to be svensational and if he was imagine Bennett, gaudreau, monahan and Sven being superstars? And guys like Poirier, klimchuk and granny would be able to produce around them with more support like reinhart, knight, jooris (who could be included with granlund, poirier and klimchuk), hanowski, agostino, wolf, van Brabant and vets like backlund, colborne etc.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

Feaster's moves do have a lot to do with the team we have on the ice right now, but his management simply didn't inspire any confidence. It started with a 1st pick(Erixon) that didn't want to play for our organization. It continued with the best center outside the NHL that didn't really play center(Červenka), and a huge offer to Brad Richards(luckily he chose the Rangers). Meanwhile, it finished with the ROR offer-sheet, the Iginla NMC (after agreeing on a trade with BOS), and the promise to use our cap space to gain picks(only to find out no one is interested).

As other posters have mentioned, Feaster overhyped a lot of our moves/roster/play during his time here. Once those overhyped moves came short it simply inspired the feeling of not good enough. He even admitted so himself, especially in regards to Baertschi.

In regards to the draft, they did a great job in 2011. As for 2012 is too early to tell because Jankowski is a long term project, Sieloff had to battle it out with injuries, and Gillies is a goalie(great potential so far, but with goaltenders it is very difficult to tell). In 2013 we probably had the best draft in the NHL, and three 1st round picks had a lot to do with that.

Finally, a lot of our roster was built by trial and error on Feaster's part. In large it was possible, because of no expectations from this team. Feaster brought in a lot of unknowns into this team, some worked some didn't- Modin, Horak, Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, Babchuk*, Cervenka, B. Jones, Wesgarth, Butler, Byron, Ramo, McGrattan, Berra, D. Jones, O'Brien, Galiardi, Russell, Colborne.
*resigned to an extension
I just don't think that so many 'projects' would've been possible for a playoff team.

Man, You cannot blame Feaster for Erixon, if anything he made a mint out of a bad situation he was not in control of. The kid wanted to only play for his Dads former team. Feaster took Sather to the cleaners in hind sight. Weird how you chose to paint that event as a negative against Feaster when it was a win all day long.

As for the reclamation projects part. That's what you have to do IMO, is fling a bunch of crap against the wall and see what sticks. I still find it very entertaining that people cannot get past moving a 7th round pick for Modin. They got one more game out of Modin than they likely would have out of that 7th round pick in the next four years. Cervenka was a zero risk move. Cost them nothing but a contract spot and it didn't pan out, no big deal.

The only bad move I feel that DID actually happen was the Tanguay trade.
And even then, purging tanguay was a win in of itself.

The Iginla trade was an overall management thing, IIRC King said they should've got him to sign a piece of a paper saying he'd accept trades to any of the four teams he mentioned. Still, Hands were tied on that trade.

The ROR thing never came to fruition why people still bring it up as a blight when nothing came of it is strange as well.

The Richards contract offer was a swing for the fences granted, but the modus operandi from ownership was still buy to win now knowing full well Iggy's window was fast closing. Cannot fault him for that attempt either.

In any case, Feaster's fingerprints are all over this organization and the the success it is having. I like this thread for the fact that the good things are visibly positive and the negatives are apparitions. Good job Jay Feaster and thank you.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

No problem giving Feaster credit for many of the parts that make up the current roster, but I would also like to credit Burke for canning him when he did. I think we are in better hands with Treliving/Burke.

[Iggy Snipe]

Yah Feaster did a good job, so we fired him.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Man, You cannot blame Feaster for Erixon, if anything he made a mint out of a bad situation he was not in control of. The kid wanted to only play for his Dads former team. Feaster took Sather to the cleaners in hind sight. Weird how you chose to paint that event as a negative against Feaster when it was a win all day long.

As for the reclamation projects part. That's what you have to do IMO, is fling a bunch of crap against the wall and see what sticks. I still find it very entertaining that people cannot get past moving a 7th round pick for Modin. They got one more game out of Modin than they likely would have out of that 7th round pick in the next four years. Cervenka was a zero risk move. Cost them nothing but a contract spot and it didn't pan out, no big deal.

The only bad move I feel that DID actually happen was the Tanguay trade.
And even then, purging tanguay was a win in of itself.

The Iginla trade was an overall management thing, IIRC King said they should've got him to sign a piece of a paper saying he'd accept trades to any of the four teams he mentioned. Still, Hands were tied on that trade.

The ROR thing never came to fruition why people still bring it up as a blight when nothing came of it is strange as well.

The Richards contract offer was a swing for the fences granted, but the modus operandi from ownership was still buy to win now knowing full well Iggy's window was fast closing. Cannot fault him for that attempt either.

In any case, Feaster's fingerprints are all over this organization and the the success it is having. I like this thread for the fact that the good things are visibly positive and the negatives are apparitions. Good job Jay Feaster and thank you.

As for Erixon, at the time it seemed like a bad trade... because Feaster's hands were essentially tied. Once the ROR offer sheet was made, it was out of his control. Richards same thing. Iginla's NMC his hands were tied again. It is just not a situation I expect(want) to keep finding my GM in.

Until the Flames finally traded Iginla and committed to a rebuild, it seemed like a team that doesn't know what it wants.

There will be no make the playoffs "guarantee" this year from Calgary Flames' general manager Jay Feaster, like there was prior to last season, but actions speak far louder than words anyway and it's safe to say the goal in Cowtown remains unchanged: it's playoffs or bust.

-McKenzie
It essentially sums up the first two seasons under Feaster- no clear direction.

I agree about the reclamation projects part, it is my point exactly. There was nothing special about them, and we managed to get lucky on a few. The same way I don't hold Modin against Feaster, I don't hold say Colborne for him.

[Badgers Nose]

Too simple to say he was good. Too simple to say he was bad.

[GioforPM]

This is basically th debate with Burke and Anaheim. Hopefully we win a cup like they did.

[#-3]

Feaster was certainly the right guy to be here for the time he was here.
I also don't think moving away from Feaster was a bad move, when they did.

He didn't always win trades, but he cleared the deck for change, and brought in a large base of assets to build from. At times they didn't look like the absolute highest quality assets, allot of "pre-apex" assets is never a bad thing for developing teams.

it was kind of the opposite of the Oilers who tried to develop with a few high quality assets.

[Super-Rye]

Feaster did a couple of things really well.

He was really good at setting a standard, which is "Losing will not be tolerated. We will fall, but it's how we get back up that matters."

He was good at not only surrounding himself with knowledgeable hockey people but also listening to their input and putting trust in their guidance. This is extra important because Feaster, self-admittedly, was not a "hockey" guy.

He was a breathe of fresh air for this organization and deserves a ton of credit for where this team is right now.

[browna]

Credit has to go to Murray Edwards and the owners for realizing where things were headed under Feaster, certainly behind the scenes in hockey circles and the Flames reputatation was sinking.

Edwards spearheaded the ousting of Sutter, when Sutter didn't get results even though he had carte blanche, and kept others in the dark like Sutter did.

Feasters convinced him that he was going to involve lots of opinions, and King and Edwards were part of that circle. It clearly wasn't working with that structure, and due to a lot of things Feaster did and didn't do, the organization was starting to lose the repuation it had with other GMs, with agents, and thus with players.

Edwards, part of the league inner circle, saw this and realized that slick talking and being "open" wasn't quite working either, and then went after Shanahan, and then convinced Burke to take the job to bring credibility back to the organization.

Given the lack of players that Burke has brought in, in the year since Feaster was fired, yet the turnaround on the ice, IMO its the accountability, discipline, structure and expectation setting that Burke was tasked to bring back, and has.
Hartley gets credit, but I think he's adapted since he got here, and in the past year which has helped.

Vets having good years this year; what's changed over last year? IMO, its the fact that a lot of the dysfunction and uncertainty with the behind the scenes stuff was a distraction. Now the organization has structure again, players know where they sit and fit and everyone know where this is going....not through Feaster and his famous cliches and slick talking, but Burke commanding respect and backing promises up with action.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by browna

Credit has to go to Murray Edwards and the owners for realizing where things were headed under Feaster, certainly behind the scenes in hockey circles and the Flames reputatation was sinking.

The ROR situation made the Flames the laughing stock of the NHL. There was no way for Feaster to save his job after that.

[kehatch]

Feaster is a polarizing subject because he did some really terrific things, but he also did some pretty terrible things.

He cleaned up our contracts, improved development, empowered the scouting staff brought on a strong coach, and started the culture shift in Calgary.

He also ran his mouth (guaranteed the playoffs, Baertschi the upset special if be doesn't make camp, etc), seemed to always failed to get great returns on trades, helmed the O'Reilly fiasco, and was generally unable to keep controversy in check.

Personally I didn't like him. Every time he opened his mouth I was worried BS was going to start falling out. But there isn't any denying that he was able to put the team in a situation where a rebuild could be successful.

That said, some of it was luck. Imagine if he would have succeeded with the a Richards signing or the O'Reilly offersheet. Might be a different story then.

[Wastedyouth]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

Let's not forget Burke and Treliving. Engelland, Diaz, Bollig, Setoguchi, Hiller all major contributors to this team.

Thank you Burke and Brad for all you have done to help out the on-ice product.

I laughed when I read this.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

I laughed when I read this.

He was being sarcastic

[Phil Russell]

Feaster oversaw a reluctant transition by ownership into a rebuild. No GM can come out a clear winner in that situation. It was a schizophrenic period. Overall, however, Feaster did a good job. He made mistakes during the awkward "are we still in it or are we done" period but he did set the plate for what we are seeing now--what's looking to be a successful and quick rebuild. That said, Feaster's firing was also well-timed. It was time to move on and let someone else do the building after the Feaster tear-down.