Quote:
Originally Posted by Monahammer
But this right here, bolded, is the point of contention. This is not a "good" season. We are an absolute tire fire 98% of the time. We're propped up by excellent goaltending. The "good" parts of the season are a mirage, and that's why it's so frustrating, exactly.
The nashville example is pretty much exactly what i fear they're doing. If they go hard after Rantanen this summer the parallel is obvious.
I maintain that this will be a wasted season and will set the team back in a rebuild. Depending on the off season too, it may actually push the future build of the team into disarray as the current crop of performers may get tired with the continued delay to competitiveness on the other end.
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Good might be the wrong word, but when the team got off to a start that had them in a playoff position after 25 games or so their is very little a GM can do to sabotage that. You're still trying to build an organizational culture, and had enough young guys on the roster that it would have been a bad message.
And being a tire fire 98% of the time is completely an overstatement. Goaltending is a big part of why they are playing well, but not the only reason.
They very much are in the playoff bubble mix based on overall play.
Looking at all situations:
Save Percentage: .896 - 10th
Shooting Percentage: 9.05% - 30th
Corsi For %: 50.9% - 11th
Shots For %: 50.1% - 15th
xGF %: 49.0% - 22nd
The numbers support that they play a very borning game that's worked for them. So really it's buy in to the team game, plus strong goaltending is why they are where they are.
And TBH I don't think your overall point is wrong. Getting a top 5 pick this year likely would have been better than making the playoffs for this team in the long term.
But you don't control the outcome and there wasn't really anything reasonable the Flames could have done once the season had started to make themselves considerably worse, with the only real move trading Andersson but even that wouldn't have guaranteed it.
So it's not something to really get too mad about, and it's still not a "wasted season" - we just have to hope they don't change the long term strategy and I personally don't' think Conroy is changing the plan.
Even signing Rantanen wouldn't change that for me...I'm not even the biggest fan but I can see why any team would want to bring in a player of that calibre for free. Teams like San Jose and Chicago are rumoured to be interested too.
But if they go move any of the 2025 or 2026 1st rounders for a guy that's 29 years old then that's a different question. But if the guys they are acquiring are 25 or younger then to me that's been part of the plan since the day Conroy was hired - he's been very transparent about wanting to add pieces in that age range.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts
Don’t lump me in with him. I’m not the one crying about singing Ryan Strome everyday. A guy talks about rebuilding and wasted season and wanting to sign every free agent that puts up points in the right situation.
Also stop making things up again to get likes. I never said trade everyone. I’ve been adamant they trade Andersson and trading him would have not make the impact to sink us into a bottom 5 or 10 finish he isn’t that good.
It’s also hilarious you post that Rantanen will be Huberdeau here but now say we should sign him because he’s elite.
Piling up on middle 6 players will have right back in the Sutter era. Hoping and praying the goalie will get us to 8th just get in right? Maybe David Moss is around somewhere to come play #1C.
Look at his last series of posts here.
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I don't think I said anywhere in my posts that you said to trade everyone...funny part is I think both of us agree they should have traded Anderssson last offseason but also that it wouldn't have made a huge difference to the outcome of this season since outside of the first 10 games his play hasn't been great anyways.
In terms of Rantanen I worry that his next contract could be like Huberdeau - they play a bit of a similar game at times in terms of being non-puck dominant wingers that played at times with elite centers. But at the same time I wouldn't fault any team for trying to bring him in as a UFA where it costs nothing but cap space.
In regards to piling up on middle 6 players I don't necessarily disagree with that take either - they need legitimate first line talent. But I think if they are bringing someone like Cozens in it's because they think he can be top line talent - now I wouldn't necessarily agree with that assessment since he hasn't shown that potential since being drafted outside of one season but I actually trust the scouts and GM in their assessment of talent right now.
