What are your top six offseason goals/wishes for the Flames?

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

1) Dump the contracts of Dennis Wideman, Ladislav Smid, and Mason Raymond without giving up futures.

I think the team has bigger problems than the contracts of a couple fringe veterans. The players that aren't getting it done (like the entire bottom 6 this year) in addition to the goaltending take precedence in my books.

1 - Johnny/Monohan deals
2 - Win the lottery
3 - Nail the draft
4 - Short-term goaltending help
5 - Top 6 winger
6 - Improved coaching next year (one way or the other systems need to change or personnel needs to change.)

[Roof-Daddy]

Wish list? I have pretty good sized wishes, so here goes....

1. Win lottery, draft Matthews
2. Miraculously trade Raymond, Wideman, Stajan, Smid without dumping assets
3. Sign Lucic to a fair UFA deal, say 5 years $5.5 million per
4. Bring over Radulov, say 3 years $5.0 million per
5. Re-sign key RFA's, as well as Nakladal and Grant (UFA's)
6. Sign Reimer, who's a good goalie to start for us and can be added without trading assets

Gaudreau (7.500) - Monahan (6.000) - Radulov (5.000)
M Lucic (5.500) - Matthews (0.925) - Frolik (4.300)
Bennett (0.925) - Backlund (3.575) - Colborne (2.500)
L Bouma (2.200) - D Grant (0.800) - Hathaway (0.690)

Bollig/Jooris/Hamilton/etc (1.000~)

TJ Brodie (4.650) - Hamilton (5.750)
Giordano (6.750) - Engelland (2.916)
Jokipakka (0.900) - Nakladal (1.000)

Wotherspoon (0.900)


Reimer (4.500)
Ortio (0.800)

Roughly $69 million cap hit

[topfiverecords]

1. Sign some guys
2. Draft some guys
3. Trade some guys
4. Buyout some guys
5. Keep some guys
6. Sign someone else's guys

[gvitaly]

Originally Posted by Par

For number 3, can teams do that? I mean it is the offseason, can the teams tell them what to do.

Yes, and no. When the season ends the coaching staff can ask players to work on certain things in the offseason. Also, the team is usually in contact with the player throughout the offseason. On the other side a team can't order a player to do something, or micromanage his training.

When NHLers start training in the off-season, they don’t begin by pounding out squats, deadlifts and bench presses. Heck, they usually won’t lift anything for three or four weeks. After eight months or more of hockey, they’re so beat up that strength and conditioning coaches like Matt Nichol and Ben Prentiss spend up to a month just rebuilding their bodies. All those massages, yoga sessions and therapists are just part of the initial process of taking these broken-down jalopies and turning them into finely tuned machines again.
“A guy that plays an average number of minutes who doesn’t make the playoffs, he’s still going to show up at the start of the summer beaten, battered and bruised, probably malnourished and lacking sleep and all the rest of that,” said Nichol, who trains the likes of Tyler Seguin, Wayne Simmonds and Mike Cammalleri. “The focus of the first part of the summer is just getting healthy.”

“Players will come in from their summer training, and they’re really fit, from an off-ice perspective,” said Ryan van Asten, strength and conditioning coach for the Calgary Flames. “Their muscle mass is really good, and they’re typically really lean.”
NHLers live a charmed life, no doubt, but their summers are no island-paradise vacations. These dudes put in sweat equity equal to their profound contracts, and they’re willing to do it all over again every year. If anything, trainers have trouble making sure their guys don’t do too much too quickly.
“It’s a tough sell sometimes, because they’ll see other guys in the gym and they’re lifting heavy and they’re doing conditioning and they’re doing sprints, and they’re like, ‘OK, I think I can do it, I feel OK, I think I can do it,’ ” Nichol said. “You have to explain to them that it doesn’t matter .You have to respect the process. You have to take your time.”

How players go from ‘skinny fat’ to lean, mean NHL machines is an interesting read.

[Gaudfather]

1. Get a bona-fide NHL goaltender.
2. Come up with a sound strategy to fix special teams.
3. Find a bruising, scoring right winger to play with Johnny and Mony.
4. Find some luck at the April 30th draft - so Flames are drafting top 3.
5. Deal Wideman, Raymond, Bollig, Jooris and Smid.
6. Resign Johnny, Mony, Nakladal and Grant.

[Gord Wappel]

Originally Posted by saillias

Just wondering what getting ahead of the rebuild means to you?

Picking high isn't a goal for me, or something that's "all OK" it's a consolation for a failure season.

Everyone talks about this, says our window hasn't opened up and so on. Yet you've got Gio and cheap, late 20s Backlund and a bunch of nice middle 6ers in the same age range...."
.

This is a wish list. And my wish is that we think Stanly cup contender.. not just playoffs. In my opinion the long delayed "rebuild" has born some good fruit but not enough top rung stars nor high end prospects yet.

So trading a valuable asset for a proven goaltender I don't recommend. Trying a Kipper repeat is my preference. Maybe trying Reimer is equal to the initial Kipper risk/reward. It may fail. If the team is really that great but still lack goaltending, and prospects are a-flourishing then try to fix with mid-season trade.
Otherwise it is not yet meant to be. Failing to recognize this in past caused flames fans plenty of unpleasantness. I don't agree with the just get in the playoffs and anything can happen mentality. Sure for one year anything can happen. But that's a weak target for a multi year rebuild. I want a run like the Hawks, or Anaheim or L.A. or Pittsburgh have had