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Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
Yup agreed, it's missing some big parts for sure. But what happens if the next round of high picks bust like Bennett? What if we lose the draft lottery and miss out on a elite player? A million things could easily go wrong and then we're at square one yet again.
At the very least, this team still has a good foundation to build upon. They are competitive and playing decent under a new coach. I just think that the idea of going through another 5 year rebuild, having just come off one, is a hard sell to not only fans but to ownership. Especially considering where the team finished the last regular season in the standings.
Obviously the best place to get elite talent is high picks in the draft. But that's not always guaranteed as we saw with our last #4 pick. To me that's what really set the rebuild back was Bennett not panning out like we had hoped. Suddenly a team with Bennett, Monahan, Backlund and Ryan down the middle looks a whole lot better then what we have now.
I think a team rebuilds when they have no choice. But the Flames do have the option to 'tinker' which IMO is a whole lot more realistic of an option. Having said that, I think the team will be a whole lot better going forward with Peters out of the way and what looks like a rejuvenated Brodie on the backend. I also think at some point Johnny is going to figure it out, which means the entire top line figures it out.
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It's just the unfortunate reality for an organization like ours that the only way to get franchise talent is to draft it. And IMO you are not getting the player this team needs by bowing out in the first round every year and drafting 13th overall. I guess for me, if the goal is to win the cup, it comes down to "this may work, or it may not" versus "this definitely is not going to work, the way things are going."
I know the obvious counterpoint here is that St.Louis won the cup after years of futility, but they found a golden unicorn by having ROR land right into their lap for a song, and pulled a goalie out of the netherworld who went on to have a Vezina-worthy season. Those are not variables that any team, let alone one in a small fish Canadian market, can bank on. The Flames tried and they failed with Kadri because Calgary simply isn't a desirable destination for free agents and players with NTCs, so we have to deal with the cards we're given.
