The Hockey News: Flames' Five-Year Forecast

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Important to note that five years ago the Flames were still fighting through a rebuild and had a bunch of aging vets nearing the end of their contracts (or just on shorter-term deals): Jiri Hudler, David Jones, Dennis Wideman, Mason Raymond, Jonas Hiller, Deryk Engelland, and Matt Stajan, to name a few.

The Flames of today are a ridiculously young team. The guys who really fit that description of older vets are the top three defensemen, Lucic, Ryan, Talbot, maybe Backlund, and Frolik. But everyone really important fits into the long-term window. This isn't the 2014 team where both the leading scorers up front and on defense were out of the league two years later. Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, Hanifin, Valimaki, Andersson, Dube, Rittich, Bennett, and Lindholm all seem like pretty safe bets to be here for a while, and they're all projected as core members of the team.

Do you think all 10 of those guys you listed are still here in 5 years? Because I would suggest that there is a near zero percent chance of that.

So who do you think is here in 5 years? And rebuild or contender, the number is still only around 7 or 8, with 10 as an absolute (and pretty unlikely) max.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Do you think all 10 of those guys you listed are still here in 5 years? Because I would suggest that there is a near zero percent chance of that.

So who do you think is here in 5 years? And rebuild or contender, the number is still only around 7 or 8, with 10 as an absolute (and pretty unlikely) max.

Nah I don't think all of them are here in five years, but individually, all of them are solid bets. Obviously, situations change if certain players become available. But the Flames' current core is largely tailored to long-term sustainability.

[kukkudo]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Nah I don't think all of them are here in five years, but individually, all of them are solid bets. Obviously, situations change if certain players become available. But the Flames' current core is largely tailored to long-term sustainability.

If the Flames miss the post season or get bounced out quick that current core is getting dismantled next summer. Always hard to predict a team's forecast longterm.

[TheScorpion]

Originally Posted by kukkudo

If the Flames miss the post season or get bounced out quick that current core is getting dismantled next summer. Always hard to predict a team's forecast longterm.

You sure? You think they're gonna trade guys like Andersson, Valimaki, Dube, Mangiapane, Lindholm, and Tkachuk if they miss the playoffs? That's most of the long-term core I identified.

Sure I could maybe see Gaudreau traded, but other than that, I think most of the Flames' young core is here for the long haul

[Split98]

Originally Posted by chedder

I really don't think Johnny's here after the 20/21 season. We have two more years with him to try win. Then he'll need to be traded or else we lose him to ufa after his last year and get nothing in return.

I don't see Gaudreau retiring as a Flame either, but I don't think he's looking at the door.


I think Gaudreau will be in Calgary as long as the team is doing well. I think that at some point Johnny will want to fulfill his childhood fantasy and finish his career out East. Hopefully, this comes once he's had his fill of rings here - but at some point he'll close his chapter in Calgary and finish the fantasy he's damn well earned.

I doubt he'll sign a sweetheart deal next time around though, that's for sure. He's going to finish what he started here, but it's not going to come cheap.

[chedder]

Originally Posted by Split98

I don't see Gaudreau retiring as a Flame either, but I don't think he's looking at the door.


I think Gaudreau will be in Calgary as long as the team is doing well. I think that at some point Johnny will want to fulfill his childhood fantasy and finish his career out East. Hopefully, this comes once he's had his fill of rings here - but at some point he'll close his chapter in Calgary and finish the fantasy he's damn well earned.

I doubt he'll sign a sweetheart deal next time around though, that's for sure. He's going to finish what he started here, but it's not going to come cheap.

I don't know about another contract with the Flames. He'll be 29 to start his next one and can't see him signing for anything less than the 8 year mega contract he's going to want. That puts him to 37 years old. So if he wants to go east I'd guess its for his next, and possibly final, payday.

[David Struch]

5 years from now Calgary will only have four known contracts, the rest are just educated guesses and wishful thing based on what we have in the system today...

Here's my stab at it, fun exercise!

Mangiapane - Lindholm - Tkachuk
Bennett - Dubé - Pelletier
Pettersen - Nikolaev - Phillips
Pospisil - Backlund - Zavgorodniy
1st '21 - 1st '22

Hanifin - Andersson
Valimaki - Yelesin
Kylington - Valiev
1st '20

Parsons
Wolf

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Split98

I don't see Gaudreau retiring as a Flame either, but I don't think he's looking at the door.


I think Gaudreau will be in Calgary as long as the team is doing well. I think that at some point Johnny will want to fulfill his childhood fantasy and finish his career out East. Hopefully, this comes once he's had his fill of rings here - but at some point he'll close his chapter in Calgary and finish the fantasy he's damn well earned.

I doubt he'll sign a sweetheart deal next time around though, that's for sure. He's going to finish what he started here, but it's not going to come cheap.

I think it's 50-50 at best. I don't think he's unhappy here. I also don't think he's going to Philly just because of sentiment. I think it's going to be dollars and cents next time. He was clearly looking for a pretty bog payday last negotiation, and probably now feels like he missed out on the big RFA paydays.

[Dube]

The big Yanks will be back in the homeland within the window I’d imagine