Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunk
The rebuild should have begun the second it was clear Gaudreau was not signing an extension the moment he was eligible.
Imagine the draft capital that could have been acquired from various players of value. Now, forced into a rebuild having squandered that asset potential it rate limits the number of high end players really can be accumulated. So I worry we bottom out, and are only really able to bounce back up to the middle of the pack rather than true contention.
But all that requires an owner committed to that type of process with fans.
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That’s a huge use of hindsight and while it ended poorly the 2022 season was an incredible ride where we saw a truly elite team that season with 2 top 10 scorers.
Now if you want to make the claim that they should have rebuilt the moment Tkachuk requested a trade then I think that argument has merit and some people made that demand back then. Instead of starting over Treliving makes a deal that worked out to be Monahan+Tkachuk+16th pick 25 draft for Huberdeau+Weegar+Kadri+32nd pick in 2025 draft all 3 players brought in signed max term deals.
Ultimately terrible decision caused by poor management and lucky he is in Toronto where he has already lost another top 10 league wide scorer.
Had the Flames flipped Tkachuk for futures and turned around and cashed in on the final 2 years of Lindholm/Hanifin/Tanev and traded those guys at reduced cap hits they could have turned it around very quickly.
End of the day that is not what happened and we have the team on a rebuild path right now. Who knows if McKenna lands here we will all be happy things worked out the way they did?
