Making the playoffs or keeping our top-10 first round pick 2025?

[Roof-Daddy]

We all know how this is going to go, Flames will give the 11th pick to Montreal and keep Florida's 29th overall

We've known it all year, they've just been toying with us

[The Fonz]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

We all know how this is going to go, Flames will give the 11th pick to Montreal and keep Florida's 29th overall

We've known it all year, they've just been toying with us

I would hope that Kadri, Andersson, Weegar, Wolf, etc get shut down with half a dozen games left to tend to some "injuries" to avoid such a scenario.

[Wolven]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

I would hope that Kadri, Andersson, Weegar, Wolf, etc get shut down with half a dozen games left to tend to some "injuries" to avoid such a scenario.

Losing Backlund for any amount of time might be enough. There are not very many legs left under this table after last season and kicking out one of them is probably all that was needed to see tight wins turn into losses.

At this point, the only coaching shenanigan that I would want to see is for them to play more Vladar.

Honestly, I think Vladar has done a great job of being a meat shield for Wolf this season. In the first half of the season, Vladar had been taking the worse / harder starts and gets punished for it. Hopefully he can get a few more starts beyond tonight to showcase that he deserves another contract next season.

Of course, the chances of winning with Vladar seem to be much lower, so that would also increase our chances of a late tank.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

I would hope that Kadri, Andersson, Weegar, Wolf, etc get shut down with half a dozen games left to tend to some "injuries" to avoid such a scenario.

I think there is zero chance Calgary will shut (non-injured) players down simply to embrace the tank.

That is not their way.

Now bringing up Cooley to start some games has some business reasons behind it to see what they have. That I could see them doing.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

He's been pretty bad for awhile this year.

It's one team for a team to gamble money, but to also trade a pick in the 10-15 range?

I could see maybe one team doing it, and that's all it takes. But I would expect even that team to exhaust other possibilities in picks and players before committing such a high pick.

When high picks get traded, its more often for younger players with control rather than aging players requiring big extensions. Especially aging players coming off their worse year.

Many posters here do not want Calgary to sign Anderson for 8 years.

You have to look who is available and right now its hard to say who will be.

I look at a team like NJ. L Hughes in the 1st 25 games had 0 games with 22 mins, since he's 22 min a nightly with games up to 29 mins. He's about to get paid and is ready to be the #1 guy.

Something has to give with Hamilton or Nemec. Not sure what direction NJ would go but I could see 1 of these guys being available.

I could see Minnesota having a Dman available.

What dmen hit UFA?

Could be better options than Rasmus out there. If we want a mid 1st it might take adding a pick to Rasmus to get it done.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

I think there is zero chance Calgary will shut (non-injured) players down simply to embrace the tank.

That is not their way.

Now bringing up Cooley to start some games has some business reasons behind it to see what they have. That I could see them doing.

It is not ANY team's way.

Can anyone give an example of teams shutting players down, in order to lose games?

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

It is not ANY team's way.

Can anyone give an example of teams shutting players down, in order to lose games?

Very good point.

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Wolven

That is why I thought the Preds might be a good draft day trade partner for the Flames. Their top 2 D are Josi and Skjei, who are both LD. After that their D group drops off massively. However, after chasing big UFAs last summer, their roster is a weird blend of rebuilding and playoff chasing.

They need a good, cheap, RD option for next year when their Duchene buyout is at it's worst (going from $5.5M this year to $6.5M dead cap). Following that the buyout drops to 3 more years at only $1.5M, which frees up $4M of dead space that could go to something like an Andersson extension.

Otherwise, they are going back to the UFA pool to put big money into trying to get Pionk or Ekblad this summer... if they are still available come July 1. (That really won't be ideal for their cap situation.)

Also, the Preds have 3 1st round picks this summer (Preds, TBL, VGK). If they converted their pick into Andersson + NJD 1st then they would still have 3 picks in the 1st round and a RD who can immediately play on the first pairing with their existing star D.

I don't think the Preds would be in a position to spend picks in the off-season. They're the 3rd worst team in the NHL this season, and I doubt the addition of Andersson makes them into a contender.

Another poster mentioned OTT, and I don't think that OTT would have much of an appetite either, after what they spent, and how relatively little they got back for Chychrun.

If I had to pick a team, I would probably go with CAR as a replacement for Burns. They got plenty of assets from the Rantanen deal, and would likely be going for it next season. If CAR's analytics tell them to stay away from Andesson, then I could see MTL being a good fit, as they look to take a step next year, and have plenty of assets.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

It is not ANY team's way.

Can anyone give an example of teams shutting players down, in order to lose games?

By this time of the season, a lot of players across the league are banged up a bit and teams out of the playoff race may rest these players in the final week(s) to take a look at some younger players which is kind of in-line with not trying to win I suppose. For example if the Flames keep this losing skid going, there's absolutely no reason to rush bringing Backlund back.

[CliffFletcher]

DET is another plausible destination for Andersson. They’re getting impatient to pull out of their rebuild and have a big hole at #2 RD. Lots of prospects and draft capital to spend as well.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Load management with guys like Backlund, Kadri. I recall Pop using Old as a reason for keeping players out.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

DET is another plausible destination for Andersson. They’re getting impatient to pull out of their rebuild and have a big hole at #2 RD. Lots of prospects and draft capital to spend as well.

Detroit has a ton of nice pieces.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Load management with guys like Backlund, Kadri. I recall Pop using Old as a reason for keeping players out.

I actually don't think they'd have to make things up.

Backlund is not 100% and already missing games.

Sharangovich hasnt' been 100% all season according to some rumours.

I believe Weegar's foot hasn't been 100% for a while.

Andersson is for sure nursing something with all the shot blocks he's had this year.

If the Flames have a really bad 8 game stretch (like 2-6-0 or something) and are out of it then I think you see some guys shut down for sure in those final 8 games.

[Macho0978]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

I actually don't think they'd have to make things up.

Backlund is not 100% and already missing games.

Sharangovich hasnt' been 100% all season according to some rumours.

I believe Weegar's foot hasn't been 100% for a while.

Andersson is for sure nursing something with all the shot blocks he's had this year.

If the Flames have a really bad 8 game stretch (like 2-6-0 or something) and are out of it then I think you see some guys shut down for sure in those final 8 games.

Nobody is going to sit that is 100%, but who is 100% at this point? I'm sure they could find a few guys that could take a few nights off here and there.

[howard_the_duck]

If the Flames sputter and lose a few more games during this next stretch, it should take care of itself. The vets’ play and team desperation will dissipate. It’s not like they’re a team full of youngsters trying to prove themselves when the games don’t matter. This is veteran team that will lose some mojo if they’re not in the race.

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

By this time of the season, a lot of players across the league are banged up a bit and teams out of the playoff race may rest these players in the final week(s) to take a look at some younger players which is kind of in-line with not trying to win I suppose. For example if the Flames keep this losing skid going, there's absolutely no reason to rush bringing Backlund back.

I think it's more seeing what you have coming than trying to lose.

If you're mathematically eliminated or are on the verge and sneaking in is highly unlikely then you might as well start sitting out players with nagging injuries and giving rookies some playing time.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

I actually don't think they'd have to make things up.

Backlund is not 100% and already missing games.

Sharangovich hasnt' been 100% all season according to some rumours.

I believe Weegar's foot hasn't been 100% for a while.

Andersson is for sure nursing something with all the shot blocks he's had this year.

If the Flames have a really bad 8 game stretch (like 2-6-0 or something) and are out of it then I think you see some guys shut down for sure in those final 8 games.

Yeah it makes sense. I think if we can get a good 8-10 game rotation in of the farm players, and some of the guy sin the lineup like Frost and Zary to see what we have. Really interested in the dman in the system.

Obviously when the pressure is off things look different, but I recall Sutter putting together that Lindholm/Johnny/Chucky line when we knew we wouldn't make it and they all looked alive again and tore it up to end the season. It carried forward.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

By this time of the season, a lot of players across the league are banged up a bit and teams out of the playoff race may rest these players in the final week(s) to take a look at some younger players which is kind of in-line with not trying to win I suppose. For example if the Flames keep this losing skid going, there's absolutely no reason to rush bringing Backlund back.

And I think that we can be pretty certain they won't - unless they're still in the race and feel they need him. But injured players is a different conversation and we were specifically discussing non-injured players

[Psytic]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

It is not ANY team's way.

Can anyone give an example of teams shutting players down, in order to lose games?

I could see it. There's teams that shut down players until the playoffs to circumvent the cap. Shutting down players that are iffy on injury status to get a better pick is not that far a leap from that.... You would need plausible deniability though so it would have to be something like them taking extra time on Backlund rather than rushing him back etc....

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Psytic

I could see it. There's teams that shut down players until the playoffs to circumvent the cap. Shutting down players that are iffy on injury status to get a better pick is not that far a leap from that.... You would need plausible deniability though so it would have to be something like them taking extra time on Backlund rather than rushing him back etc....

Why would they need plausible deniability? There's no cap issue, and nothing is technically wrong with sitting a player.


I don't know of any teams sitting players in order to lose games. I do know that Pittsburgh deliberately traded golaies and ended up playing 3rd or 4th stringers on their way to drafting Mario.