As a Flames fan I don’t want another Gaudreau/Tkachuk situation where high end non-Canadian players leave once their contracts are up; personally I would focus picking prospects Canadians>Scandinavians=Russians=West European>Americans
Also is it a valid question to ask NHL draft prospects about their willingness to play for a Canadian team?
I don’t want our team to draft players who are clearly not interested in playing for us (ahem* Adam Fox *cough)
The insecurity of the media and fanbase with stuff like this IMO also has a big impact. Just let people be, and don't squeeze your stars the way Tre did to build loyalty.
The incessant asking of players if theyre going to leave was enough to drive me away, much less them. It would drive me nuts if I was a player. Like a girlfriend constantly asking if you're going to leave. I wasn't, but you ask me everyday and I'm freaking sick of it.
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The insecurity of the media and fanbase with stuff like this IMO also has a big impact. Just let people be, and don't squeeze your stars the way Tre did to build loyalty.
The incessant asking of players if theyre going to leave was enough to drive me away, much less them. It would drive me nuts if I was a player. Like a girlfriend constantly asking if you're going to leave. I wasn't, but you ask me everyday and I'm freaking sick of it.
Good luck getting Eric Francis to not constantly ask them about it or write some piece saying they will leave. Never gonna happen.
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The top 3 US born players play for Canadian teams and basically every Canadian team outside of Calgary and Edmonton have one or more top players that also happen to be American.
It’s mostly made up nonsense.
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Players enjoy playing in front of friends and family. If you’re American, you probably like playing in America. If climate matters to you, yeah, you have southern options now.
Ultimately most of these guys want to win though. So if you’re a contender, little else matters.
Well...I think that is too simplistic of a question.
I think 'locality' in general terms is certainly an issue. The most obvious are local state/provincial/national taxes certainly.
But if you could make more money playing in Florida vs. Winnipeg, given the opportunity, even if at some point Winnipeg were a better team, wouldnt you take it?
I've always held to the thought that 'Pro Sports is not a Career. Its an opportunity."
Make as much as you can because that opportunity can be short and fleeting.
The 'Nationality' thing only really came about due to COVID. If you're going to try and plan your life out around once-in-a-lifetime events? Thats gonna be tough.
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A lot of people forget that Matthew Tkachuk is half-Canadian. He mentioned before that his mother's side of the family lives in Winnipeg and he felt a connection to Western Canada. He also chose to play junior in Canada. His brother also signed a long term deal to play in Canada. I don't think him leaving had to do with being American and not wanting to play in Canada. I think he was a little miffed about the Flames specifically and figured if he was going to bridged, he would take that opportunity to move on.
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I don't think that nationality matters as much for a rebuilding team.
The three most important things for players are winning, the opportunity to advance your career, and the total earning potential.
Even if your market sucks, like the one up north, people will want to play there. Especially if you get to play with either McDavid, or Draiseitl for a year to inflate your point totals for free agency.
Being on a winning team is just as important, because let's face it losing sucks, and the players have pride. From all accounts, coming to the rink with Sutter at the helm during his last year was absolute misery.
Then we get into a dollar earned in Calgary being equivalent to 70c in Vegas and Tampa, so that's also a big consideration.
As far as prospects go, I could see the reluctance of going to CGY in years past. That said, Zary, Pospisil, and Wolf have changed that narrative under Conroy. Prospects get the opportunities to show their game and the development to round it into form.
Right now, a big selling point for CGY is an opportunity to play higher in the lineup for less proven guys(like Sharangovich, and Kuzmenko), that might be stuck behind good players on the depth chart.
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After all that then there are more individual considerations:
Family, things to do, teammates' nationality, how close the room is, and the weather.
IMO, Calgary doesn't have that much to do besides the outdoors and hockey. When the weather gets bad in the winter it also makes people stay more indoors, so some wives/girlfriends might like it less.
Finally, I think we're slowly transitioning from a Swedish/American core to a more Russian/Belarussian/Canadian core. That might be attractive to other Russians, especially if Sharangovich and Kuzmenko follow up on their success last season. The Flames players also seem to be on the same page, and have a much better locker room than they had in years past. Everyone works on a nightly basis, and has eachothers back. That combined with a fair coach and a good captain would be the final selling point for players considering to stick around.
It wasn't that long ago when the only players who chose to go to Florida were washed-up guys who were hanging on well past their primes. I used to go to games when the Panthers came to town and spend half the time going, "Oh, he's still playing? I thought he retired 5 years ago."
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Does nationality matter in terms of prospect’s likelihood to stay in Calgary?
