When do you think the flames reach the playoffs again?

[Iggy Snipe]

I think we get in to the playoff picture in 2 or 3 years, providing we have a good goalie and a solid top 4 D-core.

Our forwards seem to have lots of speed and I have liked what I saw in the past few games, but its still a far fetch from a good team.

I know as much as everyone else how important this years draft is with Calgary having 3 potential first round picks with a top 5, could even get first overall if we lose a few more.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by $ven27

re: Pittsburgh, Chicago, St.Louis, LA, Washington.

Jackets, Panthers, Islanders. Still waiting for them to be legitimate contenders.

Pittsburgh got the way they are because when they happened to suck coincided with a couple generation players. Do you see that from Jones or Mackinnon? Solid bonafide all star players, sure, but not on the Sid or Evgeni level.

Calling rebuilds the most common route for success is just wrong. St. Louis and Washington aren't cup contenders and haven't been to a conference final, so the jury is still out on them having their rebuild turn into a success.

There's nothing wrong if the Flames go out and sign a couple UFA's this year. As long as Feaster doesn't throw away top picks/prospects in trades, I'm okay with bringing in vets to help mentor the Flames prospects that are ready for the show.

Some of the Flames prospects are just not ready yet and why throw them to the wolves so we can get another top pick next year? How does getting embarassed, night in and night out for an entire season help their progression?

I don't see the Flames as a 5 year fix or plan or whatever you wanna call it. To me, the key to success is getting results from your entry level contract guys. The cupboards aren't completely bare and you have ownership willing to spend money. Go ahead and spend it, and then it's on coaching to get the max out of your young kids taking up little of your cap space.

[Mightyfire89]

With good decisions, 2-3 years doesn't seem unreasonable. That whole 'good decisions' thing is a huge caveat with this organization though.

[SkunkyJosh]

3 to 5 years.

[$ven27]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

Jackets, Panthers, Islanders. Still waiting for them to be legitimate contenders.

All of those teams have had bad to horrible management, although the Jackets situation looks to be turning around for the better.

Pittsburgh got the way they are because when they happened to suck coincided with a couple generation players. Do you see that from Jones or Mackinnon? Solid bonafide all star players, sure, but not on the Sid or Evgeni level.

You don't need superstars/the best player in the league to be considered a contender (see LA,St.Louis).

Calling rebuilds the most common route for success is just wrong. St. Louis and Washington aren't cup contenders and haven't been to a conference final, so the jury is still out on them having their rebuild turn into a success.

How isn't it? Please tell me which teams didn't have to go through a rebuild in order to get where they are today. Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA, Boston are all contenders who had to use a rebuild/major retooling, same goes for Washington and St.Louis.

There's nothing wrong if the Flames go out and sign a couple UFA's this year. As long as Feaster doesn't throw away top picks/prospects in trades, I'm okay with bringing in vets to help mentor the Flames prospects that are ready for the show.
True
Some of the Flames prospects are just not ready yet and why throw them to the wolves so we can get another top pick next year? How does getting embarassed, night in and night out for an entire season help their progression?

Who said anything about throwing our prospects to the woods?

I don't see the Flames as a 5 year fix or plan or whatever you wanna call it. To me, the key to success is getting results from your entry level contract guys. The cupboards aren't completely bare and you have ownership willing to spend money. Go ahead and spend it, and then it's on coaching to get the max out of your young kids taking up little of your cap space.

The thing is we don't have any prospects that are going to be demanding huge offers after their ELC, we have Sven, Brodie, Reinhart, and our '13 pick(although this one could demand a bit), not Toews, Kane, Buff, Ladd, etc. I'd much rather stock up on young players/prospects then continue to try to be the Leafs of the west.

Responses in the bold.

[sun]

Not next season, but the one after would be my optimistic answer. Hopefully next season, we're still selling at the deadline, but we don't miss the playoffs by much. Any better would be awesome, but doesn't look too likely. Maybe if one of our goalies catches some serious lightning in a bottle.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

Teams that spend to the cap almost always make the playoffs.... It takes a lot of injuries or under-performance or mismanagement for a team spending to the cap to miss the playoffs.


Pencil the Flames into the playoffs for 2013-14...

The Leafs spent to the cap and missed for what, seven seasons? Since the Flames braintrust runs this team much like the Leafs, I wouldn't be surprised with another 3-4 seasons out of the playoffs.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

Calling rebuilds the most common route for success is just wrong. St. Louis and Washington aren't cup contenders and haven't been to a conference final, so the jury is still out on them having their rebuild turn into a success.

Drafting an elite core is the most common route to success.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by trublmaker

"Hoping" to miss the playoffs to get a high draft pick is oiler thinking.

Doing everything you can to make the playoffs season-to-season is the Flames thinking. How has that worked out for us?

[_Q_]

I think 2014-2015 season.

Backlund should be hitting his prime then. Brodie should be very nicely developed. Hopefully one of our goalies has stepped up. Horak, Reinhart and Baertschi should have established themselves as core pieces by then and Gaudreau and this year's picks should be knocking on the door.

[Ark2]

3-4 years. Making the playoffs next year is a pipe dream. The Flames are dead last when it comes to elite level talent, we likely won't have a number 1 goalie and we have a coach that, through 41 games, has shown a complete inability to put together any kind of effective defensive system. There is absolutely no way the Flames make the playoffs next year.

[googol]

I have faith in the team making the playoffs next year should we spend the cap.

[T@T]

NHL is funny these days, parody is rampant.

Would anyone have picked NYI(28th) Montreal(27th),Toronto(26th) Anaheim(24) to make it in this year?

Would anyone have predicted NYR(2nd) Philly(5th) Nashville(6th) NJD(7th) to miss this year?

(*)last years final standings

As crazy as it's been this year, I think with the cap going down it could be even crazier next season.

[Huntingwhale]

Flames can still come from behind and get in this year

[MisterJoji]

Oh good, a scorched earth vs retool debate. I miss these.

[$ven27]

Originally Posted by MisterJoji

Oh good, a scorched earth vs retool debate. I miss these.

Not even. More like a major retool vs. buying our way out of it.

[Sakari]

I'm gonna say 2 years. 3-4 before we're contenders. Baertschi, Gaudreau, Jankowski, Backlund, Brodie, all potential NHL stars. Brossoit/Ramo will be a great duo if they turn out well. Nevermind the picks we're taking this year, be it Mackinnon, Barkov or Drouin. Horak, Reinhart, Ferland, Jones, Aliu, Byron, could all turn out to be a good supporting staff. I'm pretty excited to be a flames fan, to say the least.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Drafting an elite core is the most common route to success.

Definitely.

But purposefully losing in order to get better picks is a different matter entirely

[Calgary4LIfe]

1 year if the Flames draft extremely well, and load up on UFAs (hopefully not the case!)
2 years if the Flames draft very well, 'win' some trades and sign a key UFA
3 years if the Flames draft well, sign some key UFAs
4 years if the Flames draft badly and slightly mismanage the team
..
..
you can guess the rest. LoL

Key point in my mind is that the Flames do have young prospects emerging, they have youth (Backlund and Brodie) who are developing nicely, and they have vets that aren't too old (Glencross, Giordano, Hudler, etc).

They also have a fairly deep goalie prospect pool, which is very important. I don't anticipate that the Flames will take as long as Edmonton is taking (or be as 'bad' as they have been for this long), but if they screw up then of course it will be years...

[t0rrent98]

5 years