Brad Treliving needs to go

[Coach]

No doubt this team needs some finishing talent up front. There have been opportunities, and Treliving has appeared to try and pull the trigger on major deals to improve this team. Having Kadri in the mix would certainly improve the team. Having Eichel on the horizon would definitely be at least something to pin a hope on. I do believe those moves were not completed due to things out of Treliving's hands. No doubt in my mind the Flames had a better offer for Eichel. No idea what the Sabres were doing with that, but we'll see. I think his biggest mistake was not bringing in Sutter (or even a coach like him, with Cup winning experience and bravado) earlier. Losing Peter's was the perfect time for it.

Either way, I do think something needs to be done ASAP to boost the team's firepower. Personally I'm okay with mortgaging the future if it means having 3-4 years of a team with a legit shot a Cup. It's just a hockey team and things can turn around faster than expected on the backs of a few young gems. If there's no move to improve this team before the trade deadline (preferably earlier), then I agree he should go.

You gotta be in the game. You can't just keep checking your bets and hoping everyone else around you somehow loses or something. You just bleed out and fade away with a whimper. Make a move.

[NewFan]

I think Treliving team's the biggest weakness is pro scouting staff. They can't find the proper player, specially younger ones. I'm sure the most of good players doesn't want to come to Calgary, but good pro scout should be able try to find good role players who can contribute more than their salary and use the saved cap to the star players.
The team should look talented guys for the scouting dep.

[Vinny01]

I have not been a fan of an offseason since 2018 when he made the Hamilton trade with the Hurricanes. Treliving has really been making changes to his team via the free agency route which he himself has stated is not the right way to build his team.

I still think not overpaying for Eichel was a huge mistake. Either rebuild or go all in he is doing neither.

[Northendzone]

^ i am trying to comprehend how you think not overpaying was a mistake?

[boogerz]

Originally Posted by NewFan

I think Treliving team's the biggest weakness is pro scouting staff. They can't find the proper player, specially younger ones. I'm sure the most of good players doesn't want to come to Calgary, but good pro scout should be able try to find good role players who can contribute more than their salary and use the saved cap to the star players.
The team should look talented guys for the scouting dep.

Which is really disappointing because the Flames already have a larger than average scouting team

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

True, but Treliving is the GM and it's his job to build the team. Of course there's input from Sutter - but let's look at players that you could "blame" Sutter for perhaps influencing Treliving on:

Richardson - 13th forward
Lewis - 12th forward
Zadarov - 6th defenceman
Gudbranson - 5th defenceman

It's not like Sutter was out there influencing massively important roster spots. Treliving also has a long history of bringing in absolute rubbish to fill out the bottom of his rosters, so it's not like Sutter's "influence" was preventing him from doing his job any better than he usually does it...

The bottom of most NHL rosters is filled with “rubbish.” Regulars on teams around the Flames in the conference standings:

NSH: Thomas Novak, Michael McCarron, Matt Benning.

ANA: Derek Grant, Simon Beniot, Buddy Robinson.

STL: James Neal, Jake Walman, Robert Bortuzzo.

The Flames’ problem isn’t the bottom of the roster. Or the top line. It’s that mid-roster players have either declined (Monahan, Backlund) or failed to progress (Hanifin, Andersson, Dube). Not having a single defenceman in the top 50 in the position doesn’t help.

People expecting Treliving to fix this roster with a mid-season trade are in for disappointment. Those kinds of trades went out with the Discman. In today’s NHL, the roster you ice on opening night is the one you finish the season with.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

^ i am trying to comprehend how you think not overpaying was a mistake?

There will not be a player with Eichel’s potential and ability available via trade in this teams window. If McDavid pushes his way out Calgary has no chance of getting him.

If this team wants to win then they should have emptied the chamber to get him. If that meant Tkachuk, Mangiapane, multiple 1sts so be it.

Flames needed to pick a lane and they have not done that in my opinion. They say they are trying to win but when all you do is swap Gio for Zadorov and add Coleman I don’t see how that is doing anything other than keeping this team on the bubble.

[TOfan]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

I have not been a fan of an offseason since 2018 when he made the Hamilton trade with the Hurricanes. Treliving has really been making changes to his team via the free agency route which he himself has stated is not the right way to build his team.

I still think not overpaying for Eichel was a huge mistake. Either rebuild or go all in he is doing neither.

If it was your career, would you do the same?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The bottom of most NHL rosters is filled with “rubbish.” Regulars on teams around the Flames in the conference standings:

NSH: Thomas Novak, Michael McCarron, Matt Benning.

ANA: Derek Grant, Simon Beniot, Buddy Robinson.

STL: James Neal, Jake Walman, Robert Bortuzzo.

The Flames’ problem isn’t the bottom of the roster. Or the top line. It’s that mid-roster players have either declined (Monahan, Backlund) or failed to progress (Hanifin, Andersson, Dube). Not having a single defenceman in the top 50 in the position doesn’t help.

People expecting Treliving to fix this roster with a mid-season trade are in for disappointment. Those kinds of trades went out with the Discman. In today’s NHL, the roster you ice on opening night is the one you finish the season with.

It's why I keep going back to his failings to create a legitimate 2nd line. It's not the bottom 6 that has hurt this team. It's the lack of a 2nd line. There was maybe a two year stretch when Backlund/Tkachuk/Frolik was just good enough but that was a while ago and to make matters worse, a soon to be 33 year old Backlund is still the 2nd line center when he wasn't an ideal one in his prime. Instead of addressing top 6 depth he was dicking around giving up 1st and multiple 2nd round picks for Hamonic when defensive depth wasn't a major issue. To me that's when everything unravelled.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

The other one is Zadorov. He's not as bad as this site or twitter would have you believe, but at the cost of a 3rd and a cap hit of $3.75M he's just not a substantial improvement on what Valimaki, Stone, or Mackey could have brought on that third pair.

There’s zero chance Sutter would have been comfortable with penciling in two of Valimiki, Kylington, and Mackey in the top six. He values experience on the blue line above all else. Zadorov may not have been the best choice, but so long as Sutter had a say in it, the Flames were going to bring in a veteran d-man who could play in the top four.

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Treliving has had a bad habit of needing to spend right to the cap on day 1 of free agency every year and that’s his biggest issue IMO. Keeping $3-4M of cap room to make a training camp or in-season move, or take advantage of a team with cap issues later in the offseason has value.

He hasn’t always made the best use of cap space. But as I remarked in my earlier comment, fans need to get their heads around the reality that mid-season hockey trades aren’t really a thing in the NHL anymore.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by TOfan

If it was your career, would you do the same?

If you are asking if after 7 years of being in my role knowing that anything other than a drastic improvement in results is what is required to keep my job then I would definitely be more willing to take a risk.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

He hasn’t always made the best use of cap space. But as I remarked in my earlier comment, fans need to get their heads around the reality that mid-season hockey trades aren’t really a thing in the NHL anymore.

They certainly aren’t a thing for Treliving.

Division Rival Vegas added an elite #1 centre just this season though…so it still happens, just not here, and not with this GM.

I definitely think you’re right though - Flames fans hoping for a mid-season move to help the team? Get prepared for disappointment, unless Treliving has his back up against the wall and tries to save his job.

[neo45]

People won’t like hearing this but a losing streak is good long term. Team doesn’t have the roster to win in the playoffs, and won’t without multiple big additions

Brad wasn’t going to do anything but tinker with a depth piece if we were at the top of the conference.

The play here is to push the chips in Columbus 2019 style and go for it. Accept the risks and take the plunge

[traptor]

I was on the keep brad train but my opinion is starting to change.

The hanifin + lindholm acquisition was his high point.
However, he's had alot of misses. From ufa signings (brouwer, neal, most of bottom 6 over last couple years), always runner up in big trades (kadri, stone, eichel), prospect pool is still pretty weak (no projected top line talent + zary and valimaki being made of glass dont help) and a failure to read the pulse of the team then make adjustments (monahans been on the down swing for a couple years).

The team is mediocre but should be in its prime. There's no big forseeable prospects that will step in (pelletier looks good but no pronections put him as a top line talent). Johny may walk. Mang and chuky can force their way to ufa in a year. There's always a chance at winning it all but i would rank them as a 15-20 team in the league.

Forever a flames fan but Brad's had his time to architect this team and the reault so far is just a big MEH for me.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by neo45

People won’t like hearing this but a losing streak is good long term. Team doesn’t have the roster to win in the playoffs, and won’t without multiple big additions

Brad wasn’t going to do anything but tinker with a depth piece if we were at the top of the conference.

The play here is to push the chips in Columbus 2019 style and go for it. Accept the risks and take the plunge

Yikes that is a disastrous move in my opinion.

They won’t put all the chips in for a 25 year old number 1 center for the next 5 years but they will do it for a couple players who will play a handful of games for the team and then walk.

If that is the plan fire the entire management team

[neo45]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Yikes that is a disastrous move in my opinion.

They won’t put all the chips in for a 25 year old number 1 center for the next 5 years but they will do it for a couple players who will play a handful of games for the team and then walk.

If that is the plan fire the entire management team

That ship has sailed unless you have a time machine. I was all for pushing the chips in for Eichel

If the plan ISN’T to make drastic improvements then management should be fired. A GMs job is to give his team what he needs

[dammage79]

We will see how the 2nd half of the season goes but, consistency issues seems to be rearing their ugly heads once again. Unless you count inconsistency as a constant.

Time to start pondering if even Daryll can even save this core.

It's a massive offseason to begin with. Add in another failure and oh boy.

[Flames_F.T.W]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Either rebuild or go all in he is doing neither.

This is my biggest gripe with Treliving as well. He must know he's on the hot seat and he's doing literally nothing. I'd be swinging for the fences on a homerun move to save my job (Eichel) or at least competently managing assets like Gaudreau and Tkachuk... neither if whom might be here next year

[boogerz]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Yikes that is a disastrous move in my opinion.

They won’t put all the chips in for a 25 year old number 1 center for the next 5 years but they will do it for a couple players who will play a handful of games for the team and then walk.

If that is the plan fire the entire management team

It doesn't have to purely be rentals and there is no shortage of options for Treliving to pursue. For example:

Make San Jose a good offer for Hertl, like a first and a good prospect (Zary)

Send Arizona a package of Monahan, Valimaki, Zary and a 1st for Chychrun, who is under contract for a couple more years

Take a chance on an FA like Kane

Make a big push to win the Kuzmenko sweepstakes

Any of those things would be better than doing nothing, which is essentially what Treliving does by focusing on adding depth pieces

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by boogerz

It doesn't have to purely be rentals and there is no shortage of options for Treliving to pursue. For example:

Make San Jose a good offer for Hertl, like a first and a good prospect (Zary)

Send Arizona a package of Monahan, Valimaki, Zary and a 1st for Chychrun, who is under contract for a couple more years

Take a chance on an FA like Kane

Make a big push to win the Kuzmenko sweepstakes

Any of those things would be better than doing nothing, which is essentially what Treliving does by focusing on adding depth pieces

How do we know which of those things he's trying to do and which he isn't?