Biggest Concern in Calgary?

[IamNotKenKing]

Too much LOFT.

[redmile04]

Originally Posted by Jordan!

First game I watched of this team this season, The Flames are No good..

Yikes. Seriously Clark Wilm era bad.

At least there were excuses in the Wilm era- rebuild + couldn't spend much money. Now the biggest concern is the direction. They keep going for it with the same result literally except on season. 1 third round appearance in 35 years and they somehow think that the squad that couldnt make the playoffs, then lost their top scorer for a 4th liner is going to be better? Sutter is a proven winner, he wasnt the problem. If anything, they did him a favor.

Very depressing times.

[butterfly]

Originally Posted by Jordan!

First game I watched of this team this season, The Flames are No good..

Yikes. Seriously Clark Wilm era bad.

I liked Clarke Wilm.

[dirk diggler]

I would prefer to watch the Young Guns era teams, this team is unwatchable.

[Hockey_Ninja]

For me personally, it’s the lack of star power. The Oilers have McDavid and Draisaitl. The Canucks have Pettersson and Hughes. The Leafs have their big 4. The Jets have Connor, Hellebuyck and Scheifele. The Sens have Tkachuk and Stutzle. Even the Habs have a guy like Caufield to be excited to go see play. Who do the Flames have that excites the fans?

Obviously having a complete team is how cups are won. But you still need elite skill to win and to draw fans/casuals in to buy tickets. And this team just doesn’t have it

[Winsor_Pilates]

8) All of the above

In seriousness, I think only the supporting casr is decent.
Conroy & Huska I'm ok giving time to but don't look like great hires so far.
Everything else on the list is poor.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by Hockey_Ninja

For me personally, it’s the lack of star power. The Oilers have McDavid and Draisaitl. The Canucks have Pettersson and Hughes. The Leafs have their big 4. The Jets have Connor, Hellebuyck and Scheifele. The Sens have Tkachuk and Stutzle. Even the Habs even have a guy like Caufield to be excited to go see play. Who do the Flames have that excites the fans?

Obviously having a complete team is how cups are won. But you still need elite skill to win and to draw fans/casuals in to buy tickets. And this team just doesn’t have it

Well you will have to suck to get that talent and its not always 100% see Sam Bennett.

We just need to ride out the season and hope the balls fall our way.

The Leafs went into that season tanking for Matthews.

The Oilers one of the worst run franchises in North American sports.

The Sens are always up and down.

Its going to suck but hopefully we get rewarded with top players and not Sam Bennett.

[N-E-B]

For me, it's the future. There is nothing. The current roster is nowhere near good enough to compete. There are no blue chip prospects in the pipeline. I like Coronato but if that's your best prospect you're in trouble.

As is, the Flames have no future. They have no direction.

I don't think there's a single roster in the entire NHL that I wouldn't swap our entire roster for.

I hope we finish as low as possible and pick as high as we can. Get someone in the pipeline I can be excited about. Because while Coronato, Zary, and Pelletier are good prospects, they don't exactly scream "future powerhouse" to me.

I want something to look forward to.

[Igottago]

My biggest concern is they rattle off a meager 3 game winning streak in November and the organization thinks everything is fine again.

The on ice stuff is frankly kind of irrelevant. I'm more concerned about the strategies being discussed from the GM level and above. That's the most important part of the Flames right now.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Jordan!

First game I watched of this team this season, The Flames are No good..

Yikes. Seriously Clark Wilm era bad.

You have commented on multiple Flames games this season

[Poe969]

The owners won't let the team rebuild, it was the PERFECT time and they wanted to stay competitive. I can't see ownership allowing it now, I see them wanting to double down on this double down of the last double down.

[sureLoss]

Biggest concern is ownership and what they direct Conroy to do.

Force a trade to try and save this season a la Phaneuf and Jokinen?

Re-tool in the summer again and chase big name UFAs a la Brad Richards?

[WhiteTiger]

The biggest concern for me is the DGAF attitude. The team, on a losing streak, looks like not a single one of them gives a single sh** about that. These are supposed to be highly motivated professional athletes...and it looks like they threw together a team for some shinny because everyone was bored one afternoon.

It's one thing to try and lose.

It's another thing wholly to not even care enough to try and lose.

[kukkudo]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Biggest concern is ownership and what they direct Conroy to do.

Force a trade to try and save this season a la Phaneuf?

Re-tool in the summer again and chase big name UFAs a la Brad Richards?

If this is the mandate from ownership, the Flames will stay mediocre until Edwards sells the team or passes away.

[Hack&Lube]

What the Flames are facing right now are all 7 of these are fueling a burning tire fire at the same time.

1. Core - The core is typically built around your longest term contracts and highest performance players. We have no functional core now. We have two mercenaries on retirement contracts who are past their prime and have no chemistry with anyone in Huberdeau and Kadri. Outside of those two, there are no players who have come close to their point totals in their careers and therefore they are all supporting cast.

2. Core’s Supporting Cast - The supporting cast are not expected to be game changers every night but they still need to perform. Our supporting cast are all overpaid based on career years and are on the decline as well. Coleman was a UFA overspend for character and has the utility of a rusty camping stove. Mangiapane was a flash in the pan and is now just stale bread.

3. Coaching - Huska doesn't seem to have what it takes so far. He looks and sounds like an AHL head coach. His matchups seem to be poor, his motivation of the team seems to be poor. PP is obviously horrible but maybe that's because PP1 has no chemistry. Goalie coaching seems to be better than last year so far. Can't say anything about Savard yet, don't know his impact.

4. Ownership (Edwards) - This has been and will always be the problem. Its rumored he is against even saying the word rebuild which left Trelieving in a cycle of perpetual UFA signings to stay competitive which have handcuffed us.

5. GM - Like the above, we are handcuffed and Conroy was dealt a bad hand. That said, he didn't make drastic efforts to overhaul the organization. I think he thought that removing Sutter would fix things. Obviously the problems run deeper. Maybe he choose the wrong HC in Huska (should have been Mitch Love) and after he pulled the trigger on Toffoli, he should have continued dealing our top assets instead of stopping part way.

6. Scouting/Prospect Development/AHL - We are consistently rated bottom of the league for drafting. We have a strong AHL team though (we'll see how they do this year with key losses in Love and Phillips).

7. Leadership - No verdict on Backlund yet but to the outside he has seemed invisible and Zadorov has shown more passion and leadership to the fans so far.

[Yeah_Baby]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Re-tool in the summer again and chase big name UFAs a la Brad Richards?

Murray Edawards: Jay, you had one job and you couldn't even do it.

[TheSquatch]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Biggest concern is ownership and what they direct Conroy to do.

Force a trade to try and save this season a la Phaneuf and Jokinen?

Re-tool in the summer again and chase big name UFAs a la Brad Richards?

This.

I've been saying for years "the problem" (as if there's only one) with the Flames is the mandate from ownership of "make the playoffs every year, cuz you never know". What it's lead to is this current disgrace - two or three (depending on how you view Coleman for example) long term overpays on free agents who have had good careers or good/great moments, and nothing much in the pipeline in terms of talent because the team drafts at 15 every year.

Now the team is in a position where there might be a generational-talent goalie coming, and there's scant reason to think that the team can be re-tooled to be competitive inside the window he's likely to play for the Flames (a five year window?).

There are a pile of worst-case scenarios stacked on one another. Whether it was Treliving's "process" or simply the pressure he was under from ownership, the team is bad, the long term contracts look debilitating, and I don't even think it's clear what the vector for improvement is. Who do you trade, and why? How do you clear this up in a five year plan? Yikes.

I think the good news is they aren't looking like drafting at 15 this year.

[Paulie Walnuts]

If we embrace the suck now, we have a chance to open the arena with a good young fast team.

[Ashes]

Biggest concern in Calgary for the medium/long-term is that changes won't be made, we'll be told that the answers are in the room, we have the talent to compete, fans should be patient, "don't say rebuild", etc.

Biggest concern I have right now, this season, this will hugely impact the franchise for the next 5-10 years is that it's a soft trade market league-wide due to cap constraints, and we have a green GM to steer us through. This is very difficult and very crucial time to trade off core parts and get things turned in the right direction.

Now I do think Hanifin and Lindholm's contracts will be tradeable at the deadline and they absolutely should be traded, 100%. But I have concerns that the returns will be less than fair market value because we've held on too long and other GM's will know that these guys probably won't be resigning with Calgary next year.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Biggest concern is ownership and what they direct Conroy to do.

Force a trade to try and save this season a la Phaneuf and Jokinen?

Re-tool in the summer again and chase big name UFAs a la Brad Richards?

If Florida's pick doesn't transfer than there is even more pressure to chase UFAs in the summer