Nope. This team isn't going to win the division, not with Hartley as coach (you need strong defensive system based coach like Tippett or Hitchcock).
Funny how one year ago the general sentiment was that Flames need to get rid of Sutter and his strong defensive system and get a coach who emphasize offense, as "new NHL" is all about offense. IMHO, Flames are so bad, that getting a good coach for them is like hiring a good investment manager to manage a $100 investment — he will only get so much out of it, no matter how brilliant he is at managing investments.
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Might be worth taking a punt at 50-1. I mean, we're just a #1 centre, a #1 defenceman, #1 goalie and an Iginla away from making a run at the conference!
How many projected top 2 line or top 2 pairing championship players do the Flames have right now? How about goaltending?
They are many seasons away from being a contender.
You don't need 6 top 6 forwards and 4 top 4 defencemen as prospects. The good teams all have pipeline of players of all different ages. Vets, players in their prime, and up and coming players.
Teams that wait until their prospect pool is totally full tend to continue sucking. The best strategy is always reload for a couple years, but also continue with strong asset management and look out for solid vets to acquire.
In terms of top 6 we have Baertschi, Backlund, Cammy, Tanguay, Hudler, Stempniak, and Glencross. For defence, there are Brodie, Wideman, and Giordano.
I agree, doesn't look good. However, replace 2-3 aging vets with young and genuine first line talent and the picture changes substantially. The margin between good and bad teams in the NHL is really quite slim.
Basically, what I'm saying is expect more of an Ottawa style rebuild than an Edmonton style.
Backlund and Brodie both certainly qualify, and I think that Baertschi can already be considered to be on track to be at minimum a "good" NHL player. Horak was not drafted by the Flames, but he is a product of their development, and he is also a good player.
We can't know yet if they will be good NHL players, but so far the track of development for Reinhart, and Breen bodes well for the future.
Earth shattering? No. But absolutely points to improved competence. I think it is fair to say that the Flames drafting and development has moved forward from abysmal to probably just below average in the space of three or four years.
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Backlund and Brodie both certainly qualify, and I think that Baertschi can already be considered to be on track to be at minimum a "good" NHL player. Horak was not drafted by the Flames, but he is a product of their development, and he is also a good player.
Backlund is a 24 year old soft center who tops out as a 16 goal 40 point guy. That's not good enough to be in the top two lines, and not gritty or defensive enough to be in the bottom two.
Lets not pretend he's got much upside yet to be seen.
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Vegas has the Flames dead last in the West Conference. I don't think that is a stretch that could very easily be the way this season will go.
They are missing far too many parts at this point to succeed, and the UFA market will not help much with who will likely be available to them in a rebuild.
nothing shocking here. flames sucked for the past few years, now take away their best forward, best dman, and best goalie, which implies that the team will be worse next season.
as a fan that was fed up with the ownership unwillingness to move from the aging core, i am happy with the change in philosophy, and also accepting of the fact that the team will need time to get back to being truly competitive.
Funny how one year ago the general sentiment was that Flames need to get rid of Sutter and his strong defensive system and get a coach who emphasize offense, as "new NHL" is all about offense. IMHO, Flames are so bad, that getting a good coach for them is like hiring a good investment manager to manage a $100 investment — he will only get so much out of it, no matter how brilliant he is at managing investments.
Great point. This past season should really cause the Sutter critics to re-evaluate how bad he was. He was forced to race a quarter mile on a mule.
Great point. This past season should really cause the Sutter critics to re-evaluate how bad he was.
No, he still stunk even in hindsight. He just had the benefit of getting the Vezina quality version of Kiprusoff while Hartley got a beer league quality version of same.
No, he still stunk even in hindsight. He just had the benefit of getting the Vezina quality version of Kiprusoff while Hartley got a beer league quality version of same.
Yeah, just look at what Sutter was handed compared to Hartley (younger core players and stars that still delivered like stars because they were younger). People forget that when we first hired Brent Sutter 4 years ago, many people had the Flames in the top 4 of the conference.
Hartley had a team with an older Iginla and Kipper, started after a lockout where he didn't have a full camp to work things out and with players likely not in the best shape. Not to mention the the absence of Iginla and Bouwmeester for a good chunk of the season.
I think it's a miracle that we aren't drafting top 3.
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Backlund is a 24 year old soft center who tops out as a 16 goal 40 point guy. That's not good enough to be in the top two lines, and not gritty or defensive enough to be in the bottom two.
Lets not pretend he's got much upside yet to be seen.
Backlund was drafted at 24th overall. He's actually doing fairly well for his draft position.
I'm not sure how you can conclude he's topped out at 16 goals and 40 points either. He seems to be getting better and better. This year he put up 8 goals in 32 games, which is above a 16 goal pace. That was despite only getting 15 minutes of ice time a night. He clearly has the offensive potential to be a 2nd line centre.
I also think his "softness" is overated. This year he was digging a lot in the corners.
The major knock against Backlund is that he is a late bloomer, which is very common for Swedish forwards. I don't think he'll be an all-star, but at 24 he was a solid pick, and I'm impressed with his development of late.
And let's not forget about Backlund's fight Not a bruiser, but making great efforts to make his game grittier.
Last edited by blankall; 06-12-2013 at 11:41 AM.
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I don't think the Flames will amount to much but this is the perfect storm to put Feaster's philosophy to work. You know the one where we have oodles of cap space so we can pick up good players for next to nothing from other teams in cap trouble, almost like when we gave away Regehr, except we weren't actually in cap trouble.
Honestly as a Flames fan I hope it works but I think it won't.
Funny how one year ago the general sentiment was that Flames need to get rid of Sutter and his strong defensive system and get a coach who emphasize offense, as "new NHL" is all about offense. IMHO, Flames are so bad, that getting a good coach for them is like hiring a good investment manager to manage a $100 investment — he will only get so much out of it, no matter how brilliant he is at managing investments.
I think the Flames were clearly good enough to make the playoffs in at least one of the years Brent was coaching the team.
I wouldn't bet on that. Ottawa kept their foundation pieces in guys like Spezza, Phillips, Alfreddson. Calgary purged their core.
I'd expect that Calgary will be lost in the desert for at least a few seasons.
Yep. At one point Ottawa had 17 of their own drafted players on the roster. They also had a goalie who would have won the Vezina if he was healthy for the entire year.
Calgary and Ottawa are absolutely nothing alike. We're probably at least 3 years out of the playoffs.
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Not a bruiser, but making great efforts to make his game grittier.
