Athletic Power Rankings Flames in at 21st

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Its not the Flames its the terrible takes overall...you just said you were laughing at their rankings

Jets are the 7th best team in the NHL? Oilers 9th with that D and Mike Smith? Why would I pay for the opinions of people who don't have a clue? I can get that for free obviously

Newsflash you are paying for homerism...its just Oiler homerism

Yeah I said I was laughing. After I read the entire article it became apparent they were just having some fun. Dom even calls it "Slack chat rankings". The back and forth between them was kind of amusing IMO. I'll never understand why fans get so upset over trivial stuff like power rankings.

[FlamesAddiction]

Without some big changes still, I think this is a bottom 3rd team.

We saw last season how having a post-apex Gio brought the team down, now we have no Gio and huge whole on defense. Even getting Eichel doesn't solve this problem.

Improved slightly on the RW, but that was already a massive hole as well, so I am not sure a minor improvement moves the needle much.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Yeah I said I was laughing. After I read the entire article it became apparent they were just having some fun. Dom even calls it "Slack chat rankings". The back and forth between them was kind of amusing IMO. I'll never understand why fans get so upset over trivial stuff like power rankings.

not "so upset"

no need to pay for garbage reporting I can get for free anywhere though

a lot of the ranking seem click bait-ish to me, like I said I can get that for free. Oiler fans go crazy for this stuff, ranking and cup odds...probably pays the bills.


Notice how the Oilers have won one playoff series in 15 years but have been talked as if they are contenders for most of that time? Building something special for nearly two decades now. Same with the Leafs.

[Lanny_McDonald]

Seattle anything but last in the league is a bull#### ranking. Worst team and worst organization in the NHL. Bar NONE.

Yeah, I know Bongo is going to give me #### about being smarter than anyone in the room, but you would have to be ####ing mentally deficient to to not look at this lineup and say they were worst in the league and worst as an organization. Francis is an idiot. End of story. And anyone who does not recognize that is a bigger idiot.

[TheChief]

The thing with the Oilers is their PP alone will probably account for 30+ wins. That's already 60 points on the table. I think they are as close to a slam dunk for the playoffs( esp in the division they are in) as there is in the league right now.



I got money on Vegas falling back a bit, and I really think Vancouver is going to be better then a lot of people give them credit for. Winnipeg doesnt do much for me, I could see the Pacific having 4 teams this year. Flames are a wildcard, but even without my homer glasses, I got faith they will be there with a full year of D.Sutter

[direwolf]

Oilers being listed at 9th is beyond comical.

[Sainters7]

Oilers in their usual overrated as hell offseason predictions spot I see. Offseason studs since 2010..

[FlamingHomer]

One could pull team names out of a hat and get a more accurate summary.

[PegCityFlamesFan]

Looks like the article did exactly what it was designed to do, create controversy and more clicks.

[Goriders]

The difference between 10th and 20th now days is about 4-5 wins. In reality over a full season it’s probably the difference between shootout records and probably moreso impact from injuries.

These speculation lists are slightly above drivel in terms of the amount of value added to anything.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Goriders

The difference between 10th and 20th now days is about 4-5 wins. In reality over a full season it’s probably the difference between shootout records and probably moreso impact from injuries.

These speculation lists are slightly above drivel in terms of the amount of value added to anything.

Exactly. I think a better way to look at it is with tiers.

1) elite
2) good
3) middle of the pack
4) bad
5) basement rebuilders

with about 5 teams in each group, except for the middle group which would ne more like 10 teams. I would put the Flames in the bottom half of the 3rd group.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Seattle anything but last in the league is a bull#### ranking. Worst team and worst organization in the NHL. Bar NONE.

Yeah, I know Bongo is going to give me #### about being smarter than anyone in the room, but you would have to be ####ing mentally deficient to to not look at this lineup and say they were worst in the league and worst as an organization. Francis is an idiot. End of story. And anyone who does not recognize that is a bigger idiot.

Agreed there is no defending Francis for the team and deals and assets he could have had and the team he does. It blows the mind. Like I can understand a couple of misses but not like the 14-15 he did, and then to not have a pile of picks and assets coming in lieu? It’s a fireball offence in my mind. It’s like he was blindfolded dartboard at the wall of names. Like I legit would grade his performance so far a 2/10.

[SeanCharles]

I, for one, actually think our defence will not be as terrible as some are predicting.

I truly believe, due to their characters and history of being extremely motivated and hard working, Andersson and Valimaki are going to come into camp at a whole new level.

They know there is a big hole on defence and I bet they have been thinking about that all summer and are working harder than ever to show up at the top of their game.

Valimaki had a lot of mental hurdles to overcome in the last couple seasons but was looking like one of our best dmen before he got injured.

The poise he showed back then should return. Couple that with an angry Andersson, an older guy in Mackey and a guy hurting for a chance in Kylington and I don’t think things are that bleak.

Kinnvall may even surprise us and if I am wrong about all these things I bet the Flames sign a guy like Vatanen, who we have been connected to in the past, to round out the top 6 anyways.

I actually am excited to see if these young guys can run with this opportunity that is presenting itself.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Lanny_McDonald

Seattle anything but last in the league is a bull#### ranking. Worst team and worst organization in the NHL. Bar NONE.

Yeah, I know Bongo is going to give me #### about being smarter than anyone in the room, but you would have to be ####ing mentally deficient to to not look at this lineup and say they were worst in the league and worst as an organization. Francis is an idiot. End of story. And anyone who does not recognize that is a bigger idiot.

I guess we'll see at the end of the year who's the biggest idiot. You are a calling a very well respected GM of an NHL team an idiot. You likely need to give you head a shake. You are starting to sound like the guy who claims everyone else in the world is crazy. You know how that story ends.

I do recall the many opinions on the Vegas expansion draft and subsequent trades. How quickly people forget. And Seattle has lots of cap left to still
improve the team. Yet you think they will come last in the NHL.

[Mr.Coffee]

Is he well respected? What’s that based on? I doubt he is after the last couple months.

This is not like Vegas (not even close). Vegas had collected a large assortment of picks plus better players out the get-go. I expect Seattle to be bad for a long time now.

[flames_fan_down_under]

I think the Flames have solid D. They will be hard to play against. Just not a ton of offence coming from the back end. Hoping to see Hanifin take a step, he as the skating ability to create offensive rushes.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Yeah I said I was laughing. After I read the entire article it became apparent they were just having some fun. Dom even calls it "Slack chat rankings". The back and forth between them was kind of amusing IMO. I'll never understand why fans get so upset over trivial stuff like power rankings.

That figures. Leave it to ricardodw to get jacked about an article like this while missing out on the joke. It is extra comical given how totally irrelevant and meaningless "power rankings" are to begin with.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

I guess we'll see at the end of the year who's the biggest idiot. You are a calling a very well respected GM of an NHL team an idiot. You likely need to give you head a shake. You are starting to sound like the guy who claims everyone else in the world is crazy. You know how that story ends.

Yes, we will see at the end of the year. But I will make this prediction now.
Francis nd the Kraken are going to be a massive failure. All the things that made Las Vegas successful, Seattle has failed at. His picks were ####ing terrible. I mean, a 12 year old with a copy of the last season's NHL stats could have picked a better team. He picked almost no one he could flip for a pick. For Christ's sake, he picked a guy that was later signed by his previous team as a free agent to a low value contract. There was no strategy other than be bade enough to pick early in 2022 and 2023. The guy is an idiot. Even in government, where we employ a lot of questionable quantities, Francis would be #### canned for incompetence after this mess.

I do recall the many opinions on the Vegas expansion draft and subsequent trades. How quickly people forget. And Seattle has lots of cap left to still improve the team. Yet you think they will come last in the NHL.

Yeah, I think they will come dead last in the NHL. This lineup is that bad. They could hire a mason to come in and install a brick wall in between the pipes, it still couldn't prevent the Kraken from keeping the puck out of the net and being a laughing stock. If that cap space we going to be used, it would have been used by now. Who are they going to sign that is going to improve the team right now? The free agent ranks or paper thin, and no one is going to sign with that team unless they have to to earn a salary. Seattle is going to be crap.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

I do recall the many opinions on the Vegas expansion draft and subsequent trades. How quickly people forget. And Seattle has lots of cap left to still improve the team. Yet you think they will come last in the NHL.

After Vegas was selected, everyone basically thought they had a reasonably solid defence with no real #1 guy but a lot of guys who wouldn't look out of place on a second pairing. I think Seattle is very similar.

The apparent weakness of the Vegas lineup was at forward - they had no one, outside of one winger (Neal) who had given any indication of being able to consistently put the puck in the net, and he was by no means a superstar. They also had a promising offensive player they got out of Florida who had previously given some good indications in Tampa of being an offensive threat (Marchessault). The Kraken are in a similar spot (Eberle and Gourde). Both teams also had a couple of guys who had yet to be put in a situation where they'd either sink or swim as major contributors - I think you could see guys like Jared McCann or Mason Appleton filling that role.

But who knows - maybe no one steps up. I certainly haven't liked what Francis has done overall, and I think they've missed some very, very obvious opportunities. Obviously they should have taken Bean. They also should have grabbed Domi, even if just to pump his stats on the PP and sell him for a pick at the deadline if everything goes south. I think their goaltending is less questionable than Vegas's was at the time (no one knew then that Fleury would bounce back the way he did) but I'd have bet on Driedger and Vanacek and used the Grubauer money for something else. Wennberg at 4.5 is a huge risk and Schwartz at 5.5 is an overpay. They might not be a whole lot of fun to watch. But I also think there's almost no chance they finish in the basement, and there's an outside shot that they make the playoffs in the weakest division in hockey.

[Sofa GM]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Oilers in their usual overrated as hell offseason predictions spot I see. Offseason studs since 2010..

This….. don’t know how anyone can rank the Oilers in the top 10. I don’t believe they are the top half of the league. They likely fall in the 17-20 range. The hype is in full motion…..