2024 Off-season trade rumours and speculation thread

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

I just don't think that is something Dreger would say if he didn't believe it was a likelihood given that his cousin is our AGM, and historically Dreger has been very accurate when Nonis is involved.

The Flames will never win anything as long as Edwards owns the team. He's the common denominator over the decades in trades that got shot down, moves that weren't allowed to happen, etc and the architect of what's become one of the most mediocre organizations in the NHL. He's won a lot in the world of business but as an NHL owner he's a loser.

[Fan69]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The Flames will never win anything as long as Edwards owns the team. He's the common denominator over the decades in trades that got shot down, moves that weren't allowed to happen, etc and the architect of what's become one of the most mediocre organizations in the NHL. He's won a lot in the world of business but as an NHL owner he's a loser and always will be.

Agreed like business people everywhere just make it make money.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

The Flames will never win anything as long as Edwards owns the team. He's the common denominator over the decades in trades that got shot down, moves that weren't allowed to happen, etc and the architect of what's become one of the most mediocre organizations in the NHL. He's won a lot in the world of business but as an NHL owner he's a loser.

100%. Won’t give carte Blanche green light to rebuild. He’s the problem.

[1qqaaz]

For hockey in general, and especially for the Flames, Darren Dreger is about as reliable as it gets are far as insiders go.

[Pekkerhead]

I don’t know much about Florida but it appears that they built their team through 3 or 4 good draft picks and a bunch of free agent signings, plus fleecing the flames in two trades. Maybe we don’t need to suck for 5 years and get 100 draft picks to get good again?

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by Pekkerhead

I don’t know much about Florida but it appears that they built their team through 3 or 4 good draft picks and a bunch of free agent signings, plus fleecing the flames in two trades. Maybe we don’t need to suck for 5 years and get 100 draft picks to get good again?

We need to suck for at least a couple drafts, and 2025 and especially 2026 are great drafts to do it.

[Major Major]

Originally Posted by Fan69

Agreed like business people everywhere just make it make money.

This is why this whole thing doesn't add up... He is not making more money than he would if he takes time to properly rebuild. Obviously he understands that. Getting a marketable super star is a license to print money in Canada and also juices the franchise value. Idunno, I guess it's possible that in business he is some shrewd financial guy but doesn't have a clue about how to make money in hockey, but it seems unlikely.

I guess we'll see this summer. If we see a couple guys out the door with term be it an Andersson or a Coleman + Markstrom, we can take all this won't rebuild thing and toss it out the window. If we sell assets for play now guys, lord help us.

[Bonded]

Originally Posted by Major Major

This is why this whole thing doesn't add up... He is not making more money than he would if he takes time to properly rebuild. Obviously he understands that. Getting a marketable super star is a license to print money in Canada and also juices the franchise value. Idunno, I guess it's possible that in business he is some shrewd financial guy but doesn't have a clue about how to make money in hockey, but it seems unlikely.

I guess we'll see this summer. If we see a couple guys out the door with term be it an Andersson or a Coleman + Markstrom, we can take all this won't rebuild thing and toss it out the window. If we sell assets for play now guys, lord help us.

I honestly don’t think it is a money thing. It’s an arrogance thing

[Rhett44]

Originally Posted by Bonded

I honestly don’t think it is a money thing. It’s an arrogance thing

Yep, even look at some posters who were in here earlier in the year saying "at least we have pride and won't tank".

You need to tank to win the cup. Or have historic levels of draft success over several years. Look at the final 4 teams and all their high draft picks.

We aren't a Duclair or a Chandler Stephenson signing away from winning a cup. We need basically everything except goaltending, provided Wolf actually pans out long term. We are a poorly constructed team.

We had a good team a few years back, all those players are gone now or aged. It's time to accept it. We suck and we need to tank.

[Lewis_D]

Bit of an unrelated rant but all the talk in this thread about our ####ty ownership and watching Chucky and Bennett tearing it up has this on my mind.

I wonder how Calgary's mismanagement over franchise history compares to other teams, obviously every fan has the most knowledge and criticism on this about their own team so that's why I'm curious. I'm definitely confident we're in the bottom third of the league in that regard, if not we're definitely one of the worst teams historically at asset management, a few blunders that come to mind:

• Trading Brett Hull
• The dissolution of the '89 team. I wasn't around yet to see the 80s flames, so I know there were other factors at play that forced their hand in some of these cases but it seems wild you go from having that many future hall of famers on your team to having virtually nothing to work with.
• The Gilmour trade
• Not drafting Brodeur, I know many teams are kicking themselves over this too but we even drafted a goalie first round that year so it's feels worse in our case!
• The fact we seemed to decide we were above caring about scouting and the draft at all for like half our team's history during the years approx. between 1995-2010
• Getting rid of St.Louis, we all know how that turned out.
• Trading Marc Savard
• How terrible of a GM Darryl Sutter was and somehow couldn't assemble a team that could even win a playoff series around a core of Iginla, Kiprusoff, Regehr and Phaneuf
• The Phaneuf trade, trading him wasn't the mistake but I remember at the point we traded him the return was baffling.
• Whatever you want to call Feaster's time here 'rebuild', 'retool' - it was a dumpster fire in actuality.
• 'The summer of Tre'. That's fresh enough in our collective memory I don't need to add any colour... which basically leaves us where we are now.

I'm sure I'm missing a handful. But it also seems like another underlying theme is no matter what we do, good or bad at the time it always comes back and bites us in the ass somehow. Hopefully in the case of losing Bennett and Chucky they'll atleast be able to do us a favor in a couple weeks time...

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Fan69

Agreed like business people everywhere just make it make money.

In their defense. If the team doesn’t make money it eventually moves to salt lake city. Or Winnipeg.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Yep, even look at some posters who were in here earlier in the year saying "at least we have pride and won't tank".

You need to tank to win the cup. Or have historic levels of draft success over several years. Look at the final 4 teams and all their high draft picks.

We aren't a Duclair or a Chandler Stephenson signing away from winning a cup. We need basically everything except goaltending, provided Wolf actually pans out long term. We are a poorly constructed team.

We had a good team a few years back, all those players are gone now or aged. It's time to accept it. We suck and we need to tank.

What was good about the team a few years back? Didn’t they like getting steamrolled in the playoffs?

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Rhett44

Yep, even look at some posters who were in here earlier in the year saying "at least we have pride and won't tank".

You need to tank to win the cup. Or have historic levels of draft success over several years. Look at the final 4 teams and all their high draft picks.

We aren't a Duclair or a Chandler Stephenson signing away from winning a cup. We need basically everything except goaltending, provided Wolf actually pans out long term. We are a poorly constructed team.

We had a good team a few years back, all those players are gone now or aged. It's time to accept it. We suck and we need to tank.

Florida has their own first overall, their own third overall and a guy they got in a trade for their own 3rd overall leading the way. They have added a 2nd overall and a 4th overall in trades to round out their team. All those players were drafted within 3 years of each other. If there was a way for the Flames to load up on picks in a 4 year period (let’s say 2023-2026) the Flames could try to replicate the Florida model.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by Lewis_D

Bit of an unrelated rant but all the talk in this thread about our ####ty ownership and watching Chucky and Bennett tearing it up has this on my mind.

I wonder how Calgary's mismanagement over franchise history compares to other teams, obviously every fan has the most knowledge and criticism on this about their own team so that's why I'm curious. I'm definitely confident we're in the bottom third of the league in that regard, if not we're definitely one of the worst teams historically at asset management, a few blunders that come to mind:

• Trading Brett Hull
• The dissolution of the '89 team. I wasn't around yet to see the 80s flames, so I know there were other factors at play that forced their hand in some of these cases but it seems wild you go from having that many future hall of famers on your team to having virtually nothing to work with.
• The Gilmour trade
• Not drafting Brodeur, I know many teams are kicking themselves over this too but we even drafted a goalie first round that year so it's feels worse in our case!
• The fact we seemed to decide we were above caring about scouting and the draft at all for like half our team's history during the years approx. between 1995-2010
• Getting rid of St.Louis, we all know how that turned out.
• Trading Marc Savard
• How terrible of a GM Darryl Sutter was and somehow couldn't assemble a team that could even win a playoff series around a core of Iginla, Kiprusoff, Regehr and Phaneuf
• The Phaneuf trade, trading him wasn't the mistake but I remember at the point we traded him the return was baffling.
• Whatever you want to call Feaster's time here 'rebuild', 'retool' - it was a dumpster fire in actuality.
• 'The summer of Tre'. That's fresh enough in our collective memory I don't need to add any colour... which basically leaves us where we are now.

I'm sure I'm missing a handful. But it also seems like another underlying theme is no matter what we do, good or bad at the time it always comes back and bites us in the ass somehow. Hopefully in the case of losing Bennett and Chucky they'll atleast be able to do us a favor in a couple weeks time...

The early stuff it was what it was. The Hull trade is one that won them the cup. Obviously you would like more then 1 when trading a player like him, but I think you still make that trade.

The dismantling of the 89 team was all about money. Canadian teams couldn't content. The STL offer sheet to Macinnis when he was an RFA was just the cherry on top during that time. Fletcher also being poached just caused things to snowball.

[metroneck]

Originally Posted by Lewis_D

Bit of an unrelated rant but all the talk in this thread about our ####ty ownership and watching Chucky and Bennett tearing it up has this on my mind.

I wonder how Calgary's mismanagement over franchise history compares to other teams, obviously every fan has the most knowledge and criticism on this about their own team so that's why I'm curious. I'm definitely confident we're in the bottom third of the league in that regard, if not we're definitely one of the worst teams historically at asset management, a few blunders that come to mind:

• Trading Brett Hull
• The dissolution of the '89 team. I wasn't around yet to see the 80s flames, so I know there were other factors at play that forced their hand in some of these cases but it seems wild you go from having that many future hall of famers on your team to having virtually nothing to work with.
• The Gilmour trade
• Not drafting Brodeur, I know many teams are kicking themselves over this too but we even drafted a goalie first round that year so it's feels worse in our case!
• The fact we seemed to decide we were above caring about scouting and the draft at all for like half our team's history during the years approx. between 1995-2010
• Getting rid of St.Louis, we all know how that turned out.
• Trading Marc Savard
• How terrible of a GM Darryl Sutter was and somehow couldn't assemble a team that could even win a playoff series around a core of Iginla, Kiprusoff, Regehr and Phaneuf
• The Phaneuf trade, trading him wasn't the mistake but I remember at the point we traded him the return was baffling.
• Whatever you want to call Feaster's time here 'rebuild', 'retool' - it was a dumpster fire in actuality.
• 'The summer of Tre'. That's fresh enough in our collective memory I don't need to add any colour... which basically leaves us where we are now.

I'm sure I'm missing a handful. But it also seems like another underlying theme is no matter what we do, good or bad at the time it always comes back and bites us in the ass somehow. Hopefully in the case of losing Bennett and Chucky they'll atleast be able to do us a favor in a couple weeks time...

Fair bit or revisionist history on this list
- Hull trade brought back important pieces to the cup team, and was generally lauded at the time, despite everyone knowing he would ‘fill the net with pucks’ (quote from that time).
- they could not afford the Cup team anymore, although I don’t think they got good value on many of the players.
- Gilmour trade was forced due to an off ice reason. He had to go. Mods can pm me for my source and reason.
- Brodeur hurts, especially because we swapped picks with NJ, but at the time Kidd was seen as the better prospect. Marty may have not become Marty here.
- at the time, we couldn’t even get a bag of pucks for either Savard or St Louis. Savard was a admitted mistake by Button, because he stood by his coach. A lot of GM’s would have done the same.

[madmike]

The Flames of the 80s were absolutely brilliant in almost everything they did. Great trades (brining in Mullen, Gilmour), incredible draft picks (Nieuwendyk, Roberts, Macinnis, Suter, Vernon, Loob, Fleury, Hull, Otto). It still surprises me they didn’t win more than one Cup.

Since then it’s been mostly an absolute train wreck. Bad GMs, bad coaches, one of the worst owners in the league. I just keep thinking the law of averages dictates it has to get better eventually…

[BigThief]

Originally Posted by madmike

Since then it’s been mostly an absolute train wreck. Bad GMs, bad coaches, one of the worst owners in the league. I just keep thinking the law of averages dictates it has to get better eventually…

Not that I disagree with you but the Flames ownership group was stellar under the guidance of Harley Hotchkiss, he was well respected in the league. The Murray Edwards clown show is polar opposite to Hotchkiss

[Lewis_D]

Originally Posted by metroneck

Fair bit or revisionist history on this list
- Hull trade brought back important pieces to the cup team, and was generally lauded at the time, despite everyone knowing he would ‘fill the net with pucks’ (quote from that time).
- they could not afford the Cup team anymore, although I don’t think they got good value on many of the players.
- Gilmour trade was forced due to an off ice reason. He had to go. Mods can pm me for my source and reason.
- Brodeur hurts, especially because we swapped picks with NJ, but at the time Kidd was seen as the better prospect. Marty may have not become Marty here.
- at the time, we couldn’t even get a bag of pucks for either Savard or St Louis. Savard was a admitted mistake by Button, because he stood by his coach. A lot of GM’s would have done the same.

It's not really revisionist history when I admitted in the post that I wasn't alive during those times, I was just questioning why they did such a bad job managing all those assets. Also your points about Savard, St.Louis, and Brodeur don't really stand as you're just admitting we had bad scouting in those days which proves my point...

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

Florida has their own first overall, their own third overall and a guy they got in a trade for their own 3rd overall leading the way. They have added a 2nd overall and a 4th overall in trades to round out their team. All those players were drafted within 3 years of each other. If there was a way for the Flames to load up on picks in a 4 year period (let’s say 2023-2026) the Flames could try to replicate the Florida model.

I don't think they need to replicate any model. Every cup team is made up of some good picks, some good trades, some good signings. It's not some magic formula. Right now they should be loading up on picks and drafting as high as possible for a few years. Trades and signings will present themselves along the way. If you're not willing to load up on picks and drop into the top 5 for a few years you're basically making it near impossible to build a contender..

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by Hackey

I don't think they need to replicate any model. Every cup team is made up of some good picks, some good trades, some good signings. It's not some magic formula. Right now they should be loading up on picks and drafting as high as possible for a few years. Trades and signings will present themselves along the way. If you're not willing to load up on picks and drop into the top 5 for a few years you're basically making it near impossible to build a contender..

That is sort of my point. panthers tanked and are now good.