Seravalli: Gaudreau has informed the Flames he will not return

[Manhattanboy]

Nm

[Enoch Root]

Regarding the top-3 players are needed in order to win, debate... please stop. It has nothing to do with needing top 3 players. 90% of teams have top 3 players and 90% of recent cup winners have top 3 players. There is nothing there. So again, please stop.

What you DO need, in order to win, is multiple good players. If you have a bunch, you can add in free agency or trades, but you can't get the elite talent in free agency. And you can't build the team that way.

You need lots of talented players to build a winner. And the surest way to do that is with lots of picks. And higher picks are better, obviously. There is no top 3 thing, just look to acquire as much talent as you can, every way you can (including picking high, which is the whole point of a rebuild)

Can we please put that argument to bed?

[Huntingwhale]

Sucks that we are losing JG and he appears to have strung the Flames along. But I hold no ill will towards him. He completely followed within the rules the league set out and just because it hurts our feelings doesn't mean it's not allowed. Dick move? Sure. But it's allowed.

Someone is going to pay the man ~$80 million and he gets the chance to play close to his and his wife's families. He'll get to play closer to his friends. He'll get to play in an area he is comfortable with. That is literally the childhood dream of 99% of hockey players, to end up in a position like this. JG has worked his entire life to get to this point. So while he might have used his position as leverage to learn his market value, why should he care about leaving hurt feelings behind in a city he's not from? 30 years from now when he, his children and children's children are still rolling in the money he made, does anybody really think that when he looks at the millions in his bank account that he's going to wish he did things differently? Or is he going to wipe the sweat off his brow with a crips $100 bill and put his feet up and relax poolside in his mansion?

For the amount of $ he's going to make shortly, I sure as #### wouldn't care about leaving behind hurt feelings. Happens in business all the time.

IMO blame lands squarely on the feet of management who ONCE AGAIN failed to get assets for an expiring contract. It's a Flames classic maneuver. Say what you want about division lead or contender (pretender) status, the Flames messed this up and are mostly to blame for this. There are hundreds of cases in the past you can point to of pending UFA players "screwing over" their teams like this. For once I'd like to see the team make the hard choice when the writing is clearly on the wall.

[Enoch Root]

Wanting a rebuild now seems to be a pretty popular opinion (as does assuming the Flames won't do it).

Any chance we can get a petition together? Needs to happen immediately, as free agency is about to happen?

Scorp? Seems like something you could pull off.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Heavy Jack

With what Kypreos said this really rings true. Really hard for me to hate Johnny, have 3 of his jerseys and he’s been my fav player ever to follow from the day he was drafted until now but man… what an absolute knife in the back of a franchise that gave you the chance. I get that it’s a business, I get that it was his choice that he earned but it’s hard for me to understand this position from Johnny and it’s a different side to the guy that we’d never really seen before. It’s really hamstrung the flames from doing anything meaningful during the draft and now with UFA unless they make a decision that clearly won’t have had any or as much time to be considered that would be desirable. What an absolute pickle the Flames find themselves in because of Johnny, it’s unbelievable but at the same time I guess it’s not when you look at the Tavares and Panarin UFA scenarios. Just really sucks that it’s happening to us and our player was a 115 point unicorn winger lol.

I feel the same about the way he handled this. It wasn't a stand-up way of dealing with the organization. His last press conference after the playoffs he talked about wanting to be remembered as a good person in Calgary, but choosing this path in negotiations won't leave that impression. It was a long relationship, and he chose to take a pretty harmful approach in how it ended. Fine, that is his right and he put family above money etc., but he didn't need to take it down to the wire like that and the stand-up thing to do with someone you've had a long-term relationship with would have been to make the decision earlier and make it clear. It's not the decision he reached that ultimately makes him look bad, but the timing of the decision along with when it was communicated between parties.

I happily cheered on Iggy after he left, and I happily cheer on Gio and Brodie still. I'm happy seeing Hamilton and other former Flames who gave a lot to the team find success in new places, but this departure feels different. Despite Johnny having been my favorite player over the years I don't find myself having much will to cheer him on in his next destination.

[curves2000]

Johnny didn't just come to the realization that he didn't want to play in Canada on the morning of. He had a very very good inclination on what he wanted to do, which is totally fine.

Him and his agent concluded that it wasn't a financial thing and a family thing. That's great, closer to family and getting paid about what you would have in Calgary as well. There is nothing wrong with that.

To do it at the last moment when the expectation was he would sign is a garbage move by a point a game player, never mind his 115 point season.

I assume there was a strong business negotiation on both sides and I would have assumed that somebody would have asked and somebody would have communicated that returning to the US was a very strong probability.

At the end of the day I am not surprised this happened and I am not even bitter about it. Truthfully with Covid, I have been very negative against the Flames organization. If we are honest as fans and as paying customers, were bums. Were a bottom tiered organization in terms of success. End of story.

Lot's of friends were asking who I was cheering for in the Finals and I didn't have a rooting interest. Just an observation that the level of success both of those franchises have had in their 25 and 30 + year histories. 3 cups for Colorado and what would have been 4 for Tampa. Lot's of post season and long playoff success as well.

Calgary keeps giving away what all of us fan's think are "Superstars" away from nothing and than we are hoping some replaceable player on the roster will bail us out.

We are in trouble

[Sec214]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Wanting a rebuild now seems to be a pretty popular opinion (as does assuming the Flames won't do it).

Any chance we can get a petition together? Needs to happen immediately, as free agency is about to happen?

Scorp? Seems like something you could pull off.

Lets just head to the dome with our JG13 gear and place it on the big steps at the back by the parkade since the front ones will be filled with yehaws and yahoo.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by belsarius

This is what I don't get.. if he was trying for max $$, then the 11th hour totally makes sense and I wouldn't blame him. But if it is for other factors like family (which is totally fair) and he knew a while ago, then what's the end game other than to stick it to the Flames. If anything, letting the team shop him would have given other teams the chance to clear cap room knowing that he definitely is going to FA and probably increase his number of suitors.

I just can't see the advantage there is to him by stringing the GM along.

Plus he's ruled the Flames out at this point. So its not like they are any competition to any of the other teams left in the race.

[Enoch Root]

Gaudreau has been my favorite Flame of all time. And while I am extremely disappointed in him choosing to leave, I hold no grudge - family first, and everyone should do what is right for them.

And as much as I wanted the Flames to get him signed, I do think maybe this was a blessing in disguise. I think it opens the door to a rebuild, and I think that is the best course of action.

I think signing Tkachuk long term, to big money, and trying to build around that, by adding free agents, would be a huge mistake.

[AFireInside]

Originally Posted by Huntingwhale

Sucks that we are losing JG and he appears to have strung the Flames along. But I hold no ill will towards him. He completely followed within the rules the league set out and just because it hurts our feelings doesn't mean it's not allowed. Dick move? Sure. But it's allowed.

Someone is going to pay the man ~$80 million and he gets the chance to play close to his and his wife's families. He'll get to play closer to his friends. He'll get to play in an area he is comfortable with. That is literally the childhood dream of 99% of hockey players, to end up in a position like this. JG has worked his entire life to get to this point. So while he might have used his position as leverage to learn his market value, why should he care about leaving hurt feelings behind in a city he's not from? 30 years from now when he, his children and children's children are still rolling in the money he made, does anybody really think that when he looks at the millions in his bank account that he's going to wish he did things differently? Or is he going to wipe the sweat off his brow with a crips $100 bill and put his feet up and relax poolside in his mansion?

For the amount of $ he's going to make shortly, I sure as #### wouldn't care about leaving behind hurt feelings. Happens in business all the time.

IMO blame lands squarely on the feet of management who ONCE AGAIN failed to get assets for an expiring contract. It's a Flames classic maneuver. Say what you want about division lead or contender (pretender) status, the Flames messed this up and are mostly to blame for this. There are hundreds of cases in the past you can point to of pending UFA players "screwing over" their teams like this. For once I'd like to see the team make the hard choice when the writing is clearly on the wall.

If I were in his position I'd care, and I wouldn't be a dick about it, but that's just me I guess. I've had similar opportunities in my life and I handled it differently than he did, obviously for jobs with zero fan fare and far less money. This attitude of screw everyone I got mine is gross, and seeing people justify it when it wouldn't have changed his position at all is strange to me.

Management should have traded him, but who knows what JG's team was saying to the Flames. We don't know the writing was clearly on the wall based on their discussions.

He could have handled this far better and he still would have gotten paid exactly the same, and still would have been able to sign where ever he wants. He literally had zero risk by being honest with the team. No one blames him for wanting to be closer to family.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Wanting a rebuild now seems to be a pretty popular opinion (as does assuming the Flames won't do it).

Any chance we can get a petition together? Needs to happen immediately, as free agency is about to happen?

Scorp? Seems like something you could pull off.

Fan petition?
Gross.
I don't want teams to make decisions based on what "fans" want.
Have you read the "Be the Boss surveys".

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Fan petition?
Gross.
I don't want teams to make decisions based on what "fans" want.
Have you read the "Be the Boss surveys".

maybe just a CP poll would be fun

[iggyloob12]

Change.org! lol. If that influenced management, fire the lot of 'em.

[Scary Eloranta]

Sad day for Flames fans. We weren't going to be serious contenders with Johnny but at least we would have had some regular season entertainment and probably would have made the playoffs again. Tkachuk will be gone next and then the return to mediocrity.

[2macinnis2]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Fan petition?
Gross.
I don't want teams to make decisions based on what "fans" want.
Have you read the "Be the Boss surveys".

I think the point would be more to declare that a subset of the fans would be ok with enduring some losing seasons for reset.

All of this year it down talk though ignores the most important factor going for the Flames, before, with, and after Gaudreau: Darryl Sutter.

The chances this team gets another coach that good, maybe ever, is low. And this coach doesn’t need many stars to win big.

[PeteMoss]

The Flames will go a 3 game winning streak in October and we'll all be screaming about trading for the big target on the free agent market.

[edn88]

Does anyone really think that our management team was not 100% aware that JG was a flight risk? And if Treliving didn't think that there was a very good chance that JG was leaving then he is not paying attention.

If there was not (or is not) a Plan B in case JG left, the management team is not doing their job. To be honest through this whole situation, it felt like we had less than a 10% chance of bringing JG back.

I don't mind not overpaying JG, but if that is impacting signing or not Matthew, and we should have traded him for #2 overall pick and then figured out where we were from there.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Manhattanboy

I don’t blame JG at all for wanting to be closer to family.

I am hugely disappointed how his camp handled things.

Exactly like Tavares.

The Flames could have been in an entirely different place had he been honest with them. And he still would have been able to sign with which ever team he wanted. Loyalty, obligation and just doing the right thing for the franchise that made him who he is obviously meant nothing to him. Maybe that’s his agent’s fault but ultimately it was his choice how it went down.

Why should players have that kind of loyalty to a team when the teams don't have the same loyalty to players? Teams throw players away where they are of no use to them, so why should the players have obligations to the team and be overly loyal?

And the Flames didn't make him who he is for the most part. Gaudreau did most of the heavy lifting himself. He had three years of college to mature and develop as a player. That probably did more for him than a parade of mediocre Flames coaches. How did the Flames make him who he is?

I think you're just a bit over emotional about it, perhaps. didn't you say earlier you hoped his marriage would fail?
Really? because he put himself first?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Fan petition?
Gross.
I don't want teams to make decisions based on what "fans" want.
Have you read the "Be the Boss surveys".

To be fair those are probably pretty trolled. I've been trolling the Oilers ones for years.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

I happily cheered on Iggy after he left, and I happily cheer on Gio and Brodie still. I'm happy seeing Hamilton and other former Flames who gave a lot to the team find success in new places, but this departure feels different. Despite Johnny having been my favorite player over the years I don't find myself having much will to cheer him on in his next destination.

The thing with Iggy was he only had so many years left to get his Cup and he wasn't getting it in Calgary with a rebuilding Flames team so I understood why he left. And I wanted him to get his Cup.

My mom actually worked with a guy who used to live in St. Albert and knew Iggy and said he had told him one day when they were having drinks that it was his last year in Calgary and that he wanted to chase a Cup. She told me this at the beginning of the season so I wasn't shocked when it was announced they were shopping him around.

With Johnny I can't say I hope for the same.