9/10 so far.
- No obviously crippling contracts
- Not giving up Brodie for peanuts for the sake of making a trade
- Not paying someone to take Frolik, who is still a useful player
The Flames were the best team in the west last season. They are also a fairly young team. I did not expect - nor do I want - some major moves. Yes, Treliving has to find some cap space, and that can be costly, but teams also need useful players. With the exception of Neal, this team does not have cap-heavy contracts that are underperforming. Everyone else is at least meeting their cap hits relative to performance, at least in my opinion.
Hopefully the Flames can find a way to move out a contract or two to make room for a couple of re-signings, possibly a player-for-player trade to add a bit of toughness and/or speed, maybe a hockey trade that makes sense or a depth signing once the cap situation has been dealt with and all the RFAs are re-signed.
10/10 would be if Treliving made a hockey trade involving Neal, as I personally don't see him bouncing back, and found him useless in all 3 zones on the Flames outside of maybe a 5 game or so stretch late in the season. The playoff leader who was supposed to show the way was a healthy scratch in the elimination game - that is telling of just how useful he was. If Treliving found a way to unload that one big contract, he would get a perfect 10 for me.
My philosophy is simple, however. You get an automatic pass (5/10) simply for not giving a player in his 30's a big contract with both term and dollars. You get another couple of points simply for not over-paying depth players (who ideally you should be developing in-house, but no team in the NHL really develops all their depth themselves of course). Then you get a point for every hole you fill with short-term, low-dollar contracts to fill holes on your team.
Flames scored a 9 in my totally un-scientific and arbitrary calculation.
You also minus points for not filling a hole. Maybe Treliving only managed an 8 since he perhaps hasn't filled in a top 6 RW hole in the lineup for that second line, or made that third line more effective... but then again, Neal.
