Your Opinion - A single change..

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

It’s stunning that this core has had 4 different head coaches and people still think getting a new coach is going to fix this team. Laughable almost. I don’t think a high end coach is enough. Not even close. Laviolette or Gallant or Boudreau would only be a band-aid.

This core is rotten. I would like to see them blow it up but realistically I think they’ll move a guy like Johnny or Monahan and go after Hall or someone else via trade.

I agree that coaching isn't the main issue. This is virtually the same team that had the best regular season in the West just last season, but they looked very different this year. Not mentioning any names, but at least a couple of key players clearly lost a step this year. Add to that, inconsistent goal tending, and the team is pretty much a predictable sum of its parts. We didn't have a single player last season that was elite at anything.

The best player on the team is 22 years old. The captain and top defenseman is starting to show his age and declined. The most skilled player is a light weight that can't drive a line. A top line center that is probably in the lower end of what most people consider a 1st line center.

Look at the teams left in the playoffs right now and ask yourself honestly if any of those teams would trade their best LW, C, RW, D, or G for our 1st liners? Not considering contracts or salary, but just by ability. I can't think of too many where they would. When it comes to high-end talent, the Flames are out classed right now.

[Cycling76er]

Premiere Head Coach.
















Trade Johnny Gaudreau or get a Taylor Hall type to play with him.

[Rejean31]

Hire Peter Laviolette or Gerard Gallant. Stay away from Bruce Boudreau!!

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

I'll make a football analogy here. I watched the Kansas City Chiefs stumble through playoff game after playoff game not getting it done. They even had some good coaches too, but would always come up short. Most of those years they had good Quarterbacks, but never an elite top of his game one. Alex Smith was putting up good numbers and they had just won 12 games. They still traded significant picks to move into a position to draft Patrick Mahomes. In the last two years with Mahomes starting they won the Superbowl, and they were damn close to getting there the previous year. Despite having a decent option in hand they took a risk to go get a better one at the most important position in the game.

If the team wants to make one move...go all in to move into position to draft a center early in the first round.

This is really what they should be doing - putting the 1st +++ in play to move up in the draft and collect some elite players.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

If the team wants to make one move...go all in to move into position to draft a center early in the first round.

Problem is that there's luck involved in nailing picks in the draft as all teams miss even when drafting in the top 5/10. What if that highly drafted center turns into another Bennett? Going all-in can be a gamechanger but it can also blow up in their face. Reid may not even be working for the Chiefs today if he traded all that draft capital for Trubisky instead of Mahomes.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Problem is that there's luck involved in nailing picks in the draft as all teams miss even when drafting in the top 5/10. What if that center turns into another Bennett? Going all-in can be a gamechanger but it can also blow up in their face. Reid may not even be working for the Chiefs today if he traded all that draft capital for Trubisky instead of Mahomes.

Well you don’t trade up for just anyone or just to do it.

But if there’s a player you’ve identified as a premiere centre, you move heaven and earth to secure him, because nothing else will make a difference.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

This is really what they should be doing - putting the 1st +++ in play to move up in the draft and collect some elite players.

No way the Flames do this but they could use Monahan and Gaudreau in my opinion to move up in the draft and grab some other good young players for potentially a quick turn around.

Something like Monahan and 19th overall to Buffalo for Cozens and 8th overall.

Then something like Gaudreau and 8th overall to Jersey for Zacha, 7th overall and 18th overall.

In the end its:

Gaudreau
Monahan
19th

For

Zacha
Cozens
7th
19th

Maybe another piece or two could be added, like Mcleod or something I dunno.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

This is really what they should be doing - putting the 1st +++ in play to move up in the draft and collect some elite players.

The opposite actually.

Make the team ####ty by trading away all the good players for pcks, get your own high draft pick and make multiple selections with the picks you received for making the team bad by trading away the good players.

Very straight forward stuff.

There are at least 3 teams currently undertaking this strategy.

It is mainstream and understood around the league as the best way to be competitive.

[topfiverecords]

Replacement for Jankowski

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

The opposite actually.

Make the team ####ty by trading away all the good players for pcks, get your own high draft pick and make multiple selections with the picks you received for making the trek bad by trading away the good players.

Very straight forward stuff.

There are at least 3 teams currently undertaking this strategy.

It is mainstream and understood around the league as the best way to be competitive.

I am seeing the light. Move Gaudreau, Monahan, Hanifin, Gio (if you can) for high picks/prospects (whether this off season or over the next two years, depending on the player and their contract situation). Go in to the expansion draft able to protect all of the young guys. Keep guys like Backlund, Lindholm, and Ryan for a bit of the veteran presence, fill out the roster with some other cheap veteran guys, and see what happens.

So my one thing would be start the rebuild, I guess. If only because "why not" and considering getting a high profile coach, an elite two-way center, and a top-end goaltender are all extremely unlikely to happen this year.

[Enoch Root]

I would be all for a rebuild as well.

But there is no way the team - an actual business, let's not forget - is going to commit to another full rebuild this quickly when A) their core is mostly still in their mid 20s, and B) they haven't had big playoff runs to generate all that sweet playoff revenue to carry them through another rebuild.

So it isn't happening.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by SebC

Something changed during last year's All-Star break. I don't know what it was. It seems nobody in the organization does either, or they haven't been able to fix it. Whatever it is, I want it changed back. And if nobody in the organization has been able, then maybe an expert from the outside, an elite hockey mind, can find it. So, new head coach, I guess. Though I do think Ward has been above average overall, so there's a good chance that even a high-pedigree coach could be a step back.

They regressed to who they are. November 2018-Feb 2019 is the outlier here. 4 months of spectacular play. The other 38 months of hockey in the last 6 years are the true Flames: a bubble team.

[Flash Walken]

You don't need 'playoff revenue' to carry you through a rebuild.

In case you haven't noticed, the Flames have basically 0 playoff revenue in the last 15 years and have spent to the cap anyway. So either it's a business and they are idiots or it's a toy for guys with hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal with a league wide revenue sharing program and a hard cap with escrow linked to revenue.

The point of rebuilding is to ship out salary anyway. If you're undertaking a rebuild and paying a bunch of guys top dollar to play hockey you're doing it wrong.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I would be all for a rebuild as well.

But there is no way the team - an actual business, let's not forget - is going to commit to another full rebuild this quickly when A) their core is mostly still in their mid 20s, and B) they haven't had big playoff runs to generate all that sweet playoff revenue to carry them through another rebuild.

So it isn't happening.

No ticket sales means it's a perfect year for an aggressive retool. Move out Gio, Gaudreau, maybe one of Monahan/Lindholm, Ryan (at the deadline). Retain money (for 1-2 years) and take back bad contracts (short-term) to maximize value. Re-stock the cupboards.


Of course, with the certainty of what the next season even looks like (plus the expansion draft looming), it's unlikely that very many teams are keen to pony up for those guys.

[ricardodw]

So pretty obvious that there will be more than a single change. The result of a single change will not be measurable.

To pick one:

The Flames will likely be going into next season with 40% of their defense being replaced. Hamonic 21:11 and Brodie 20:27 were 2 of the top 4 d-men by TOI. Stone, Forbort will likely be gone and the Flames should not even consider Gustafsson. The Hawks were not that far from a playoff team when the jettisoned him

That leaves Gio Hanifin and Andersson as proven top-4 d-men.

The replacements are Valimaki who was just coming into his own before his injury... splitting his last season between the AHL and NHL. And Kylington who hasn't yet established himself as a replacement level #6 NHL defenseman (like say Fantenberg)


This issue is the single most obvious need ... at least one legit top-4 guy needs to be in place until Valimaki establishes how good he actually is.

Pietrangelo would be a far greater improvement than Hall Whatever it would take to get Hall add a million or 2 and get Pietrangelo.

---------

Let Gio play without the "C" responsibility.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

You don't need 'playoff revenue' to carry you through a rebuild.

In case you haven't noticed, the Flames have basically 0 playoff revenue in the last 15 years and have spent to the cap anyway. So either it's a business and they are idiots or it's a toy for guys with hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal with a league wide revenue sharing program and a hard cap with escrow linked to revenue.

The point of rebuilding is to ship out salary anyway. If you're undertaking a rebuild and paying a bunch of guys top dollar to play hockey you're doing it wrong.

That's the kind of snark that just makes people look like asshats.

I made the statement from the point of view of the owners. The regular season - and playing to the cap - is a break-even process, and playoff revenue is profit.

They have made the playoffs in 4 of the past 6 years. The fact that they haven't been successful when they get there would be no doubt deemed a disappointment and a surprise.

The solution to that - from their perspective - would be to support continuing to build on the current core and try to get MORE playoff revenue, not tear it down and go revenue-less for another handful of years.

And with the new arena coming, revenue is more important than ever.

[Backstop]

Some truly insightful comments (some of you know know more about individuals and teams than I know about myself)

Although initially clear more than a single change is required to right the ship, I am now inclined to agree that although a Head Coach will be a significant step in the right direction, on its own it is not enough.

Like dropping a huge engine into your car, sure its gonna go a lot faster but unless you build the support to match you're just gonna twist off the drive train or bend the frame leaving you no further ahead.

[Inglewood Jack]

Originally Posted by Backstop

Some truly insightful comments (some of you know know more about individuals and teams than I know about myself)

Although initially clear more than a single change is required to right the ship, I am now inclined to agree that although a Head Coach will be a significant step in the right direction, on its own it is not enough.

Like dropping a huge engine into your car, sure its gonna go a lot faster but unless you build the support to match you're just gonna twist off the drive train or bend the frame leaving you no further ahead.

we've never even tried putting that huge engine in all these years...can we please at the very least do that and finally eliminate one of the variables that might be contributing to the car's success/failure?

[TheIronMaiden]

After taking a little break from hockey, I have some thoughts on this team.

Firstly, making the playoffs in back to back years is an improvement for this team. The question now is "is this improvement enough to stay to course?"

My personal answer is no, as the Flames have a glaring omission from their team, and that comes in the form of a pure sniper. The bottom line is that the Flames are too easy to defend against. In the playoffs it is too easy for teams to shut down the top line, and the Flames don't have a legitimate second threat.

The new question should be who are the Flames comfortable trading to acquire such a player - my answer is that there is a very short list of players who are untouchable. Tkachuk, Dube, Andesson and Hanifin. I'm not saying that all the other players should be traded. What I am arguing is that no other players should be exempt from the conversation.

The Flames are close I think. That said, with their current roster they are not that close. Changes need to happen, big or small.

[ForeverFlameFan]

I’ve got to go with head coach.

Let Ward be associate coach with a pay raise. He deserves it. And if we go far as a team with a premier HC like Laviolette or Gallant, then some teams that need an HC change may call for Ward (in the future).

It’s time to pay for a HC that will move us past round 1.