Seravalli: Gaudreau has informed the Flames he will not return

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Yoho

I wish we had live video of Murry Edwards soaking this in.

Thats just a Gif of a chequebook closing.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by Locke

Ya know...I'm trying to fish through my own life and thoughts for comparisons of when I had to make hard decisions.

Its entirely possible that he wanted to stay, but external pressures were constant and he put it off, delayed it, tried stalling....I've seen it happen. I've done it.

Maybe he was put between a rock and a hard place and was trying to squirm his way free?

I dont know. Devil's Advocate. Either way, its done now, I dont know how I'll feel about him as a player as time goes on but he's never struck me as malicious.

I guess we'll see how it all plays out.

Yeah he may be getting advice from his agent etc, but I just don't believe he ever planned to re-sign now that we're here.

I thought he might re-sign but now it seems clear that was never in the cards based on the reports about the Flames offer and how upset Treliving was. If he's leaving money on the table he was never going to re-sign, and he likely is.

He wasn't between a rock and a hard place like the average person could be. We're talking about a guy who's set for life & has a guaranteed contract no matter what.

But there will be more info to come out so we'll see.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by WCW Nitro

No reason to be angry at anyone, both parties were working for their own interests- Flames.thought they could have a deep playoff run with him and convince him to stay and Gaudreau had his own reasons to leave.

It would have still sucked to know we were losing him if we found out in June, but would have been able to do things at the draft and prepare for free agency

[CF84]

...At least we don't need to trade Lucic anymore.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I don't know. His pivots have worked out pretty good in the past. He turned Dougie Hamilton into a top-pairing defenseman and a top centre. He replaced Bridie with much more effective Tanev. He made the difficult—and right—decision of exposing the team's best defenseman to the 3xpansion draft, made a trade and a UFA signing, and the team responded with one of it's most dominating defensive performances of all time.

But none of that counts, you see. Lindholm, Hanifin, Tanev? All those players are still on the Flames' roster and therefore junk. So it's still Treliving's fault and he must be fired! Into the sun!! Eleventy years ago!!!

[1qqaaz]

I kind of think the Flames should just fully embrace truculence and adopt a Sutter identity.
Sutter is good with hardworking underdogs.

I still bet they make the playoffs. Just not with 110+ points.

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by CF84

...At least we don't need to trade Lucic anymore.

There it is! The “Silver Lining”

[Elkyiv]

I don't understand the rebuild talk. Is there no one we can sign in FA that can replace his numbers?

[cannon7]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Essentially get players who want to be here and...

Ah, now I see the problem.

[Icon]

Originally Posted by CF84

...At least we don't need to trade Lucic anymore.

... But probably still should if we're going to try to be competitive the next couple years. I don't think we need to include a sweetener to trade him to a cap floor team either, Anaheim seems like a great landing spot

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Wait, I thought the narrative was that Treliving set this up to happen by being such a big bad meanie when he negotiated Gaudreau's last contract.

Which is it?

We do know that he irritated Darryl out of retirement by filling the local broadcast with a team not doing the things they needed in order to be successful

So there’s that

[Hockey_Ninja]

Originally Posted by Elkyiv

I don't understand the rebuild talk. Is there no one we can sign in FA that can replace his numbers?

Lol

[Yoho]

Originally Posted by Elkyiv

I don't understand the rebuild talk. Is there no one we can sign in FA that can replace his numbers?

No more dumb free agent signings.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

This dude on 960 absolutely NAILS it.

Whoever this dude is - best caller in years.

Trevor. I think his name was Trevor.

Yeah he put an arrow right between the eyes of the problem here. It was well said and delivered.

The team doesn't put its foot down while there's still time to maneuver and prepare and not be just left at the altar scrambling without assets to show for it. They were sheepish around Gaudreau and let him take more time than they had to get a concise answer.

We're not a very proactive team. Been pretty reactionary and just going through the motions at the end of the day.

[VilleN]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

You mean like how Tre had leverage when Johnny a NTC? Jesus man, you’re all over the place.

What the trade return would be? What an asinine request that completely misses the point.

Name a star player who doesn’t have an NTC. He had some leverage, he couldn’t have signed him to league minimum for example.

How is that asinine? It’s the most relevant part of the argument that Tre should be fired. What did Tre miss out on by not trading Gaudreau pre-NTC? Was it better than 1 year of the best left winger in the game, and making it to the second round? Doubtful I would say.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

What makes you think this?

Flames fans: ‘Our assets are junk! We need to rebuild!’

Same Flames fans: ‘We should trade all our players to accelerate the rebuild, because our assets are so valuable!’

That's without even getting into things like the concept of marginal value.

That just shows you how thin of a margin there is between winning and losing in this league. A team has to be more than just several good players. It has to be a team that’s more than the sum of it’s parts. A team where players outperform their contracts and the team exceeds expectations.

Flames fans, myself included, are just afraid of being consistently average. Just good enough to prevent the team from taking a step to become great. That said last season was one of the most exciting seasons I can remember, and how many of us were optimistic going into it with Zadorov and Gudbranson?!

[jg13]

the worst part about this for me is knowing they're still going to try to remain competitive even though they know they're not a contender anymore.

if your team isn't good enough to compete with the best. blow it up and start over again. However that isn't in this franchises DNA and we're going to be drafting 10th-15th most likely till Sutters contract ends, he resigns or gets fired.

[Classic_Sniper]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

It is truly a great time to rebuild. Many of your players just had career years.

Trade them while their value is high and maybe you won't be rebuilding for five years.

This is the only silver lining I can see. That and if the team decides to rebuild, at least the team doesn’t have to go up against McDavid’s run during his prime.

The team got no assets for Johnny, so trading Tkachuk, Mangiapane and etc for big hauls might be the only way to jumpstart a necessary rebuild.

The organization has to be intellectually honest with themselves, they were barely competitive against the Avs, Oilers and etc with Johnny. Without Johnny and the top line, this team has nothing.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Has this been shared yet? Because it’s the first time I’ve smiled since thee news broke:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1547042201858805760

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by EVERLAST

Tkachuk isn't captain material....not even close.

If he wants to sulk about Jg and wants to take his toys home then let him.

I don't believe for one minute that John and Matt even like each other.

Tkachuk’s camp has been very quiet this whole time but people are already running him out of town.