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Love it. Oilers just provided some quality entertainment. can’t wait to see all their best writers defend this one and claim its their missing piece

Heat have a new bench boss. Really like the hire. Did some good things in the WHL, worked at the Juniors for Canada and seems to be well respected.

like them both but I give Sillinger the edge or 2 reasons. He plays with power, which helps him create opportunities, and he’s the better goal scorer. I know Coronatos numbers were better and while Coronato has a wicked release j don’t see him create the type of deception and power Sillinger does with his shot. Coronato seems to thrive off being in open space to score goals and that’s something that gets harder and harder to do as you move up. I still like him and wouldn’t actually be upset if the Flames picked him. I just like a few others more.

Happy to see he has Sillinger mocked to the Flames. While it’s never written in stone Craig Button does seem to have either insight, or just similar opinions, to the Flames. If Todd Button is sure that the 8 is locked in,which makes sense, Sillinger is my favorite prospect left.

The Habs are not the only example of the get in and see what happens, they are just the most recent. Dallas last year, St Louis, Vegas, Flames, Oilers…. The list goes on. It’s a parity based league and hockey always has, and imo always will, have a lot of randomness built into it. I don’t think the just get in and see philosophy will ever go away and it’s not just the Flames that will operate this way.

Was never less interested in a Stanley Cup finals than I was this year, which is really too bad becuase Tampa is probably the best hockey team we've seen since the Hawks. Between the pace of game (too many teams clogging it up) and the awful officiating it just lead to some really slow and uninteresting hockey. NHL has a problem on their hands with their playoff officiating that should be priority 1 (well 2 once they actually investigate the Blackhawks) but I highly doubt they will care about it and they'll try and claim their officials are the best.

Personally, I get the aversion to long term deals and think it's a better way to go. Save it for elite players but if they are not elite then I think you have more cases of teams regretting the deals than loving them. Things can change so fast at the professional level, including injuries, that I think you really need to reserve long term contracts for a select few players. With guaranteed contracts I think term is what gets you into trouble more often than $s or AAV.

He's both, but the fact that he can do both well should have value placed on it and for comparison sake doesn't make sense to treat him as a winger.

Well Nuge is not a winger. I doubt they'd do that either but my point was I don't see how Mang can argue he's more valuable because Erikson Ek does similar things at a more important and harder to play position.

Eriksson Ek is basically Mangiapane at the center ice position. So if he's worth than, then Mang is worth less. EK is very underrated, possibly one of the more underrated players in the league. 8 year term is always risky, but that's a calculated gamble by the Wild on a player who is trending toward a number one center.

Kuznetsov was picked in the CHL import draft by Saint John, same junior team as Jeremie Poirier and Ryan Francis, so the Flames do have the option of having him play in the CHL next season and not just Stockton. Francis will go pro but Poirier would still be there. I suspect they'll put him in the A but they have another option now.

I would be disappointed if the Flame picked Lysell myself. He feels very safe in that he'll likely slot in as a middle 6 winger but I don't see either the type of shot or type of play making ability that could make him rise up higher than that. Given who should be on the board I'd rather roll the dice on others that have more upside than him

No, Treliving is on top of the hockey ops. Maloney is the experienced guy in the room, work alongside Treliving to provide insight/guidance but he reports to Treliving.

There isn't one. John Bean is the President and CEO of Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation so technically him.

I'm not really a big believer in the idea that the Flames have an issue with this being a "country club" as I think that implies that they don't care, don't work hard or don't care about winning. None of that is fair IMO nor do I think Valimaki/Dube have anything to do with that either. Something to keep in mind if you want to play the entitlement card is i'm not sure we've seen a player who was given more by this organization than Dion Phaneuf. THAT was a player who was very entitled and Sutter let it happen. For the record, I actually don't' have a problem with it either because you should treat your stars differently. I think the problems with the organization stem from a lack of cohesive direction. The direction always seems to be to just get into the playoffs and see what happens, which tends to lead to a more of a "flavor of the month approach". 04-06 they build a team that was deep, responsible defensively, good goaltending but lacked the high end talent/scoring ability. So at the price of their depth and their future they went out and tried to acquire those pieces (Langkow, Tanguay, Jokinen) and for the next several years had a good high end team but no depth. Injuries destroyed them and their bottom 6 was basically useless and it prevented them from doing anything in the playoffs. Then they reversed that approach, tried to go back to the depth model but by that time their high end talent was aging and because they never seem to care about their feature everything blew up on them. So you "rebuild" to try and get the high end talent and rebuild that future but you never full commit to it so instead of building an organization that could finally have both (the depth AND the high end talent) you wind up with a group more on the high end talent side, but not so much on the depth side. That didn't work (Colorado series) because maybe our high end isn't as good as we thought so now let's go back to the depth side of things and try that approach because we aren't going to back and rebuild so quick after the last one. Throughout all of that you are having to constantly change coaches to fit the new direction, or you just make bad hires, so you can never really develop a culture. On top of that they've had a combination of bad GMs and too much turnover at the GM spot which is constantly changing the type of team they are after. To make matters worse the Flames org has never really seem to understand that as a small market Canadian team your are going to be a little limited in what type of player acquisition modes are available to you. Many others deal with this, but because they never fully commit to an approach you are going to leave gaps but leaving gaps trying to be filled through FA when not many want to come here is setting yourself up for failure. Much of this is over simplifying things but at a high level that's my problem with the organization and it's why I'm an advocate for the Flames hiring a president of hockey ops model because I think to fix this you need to answer 2 question: 1. What type of hockey team and org do we want to be which leads to what type of attributes are we going to scout/acquire for. 2. How do we recognize we are a small market club and build around that to produce a more sustainable product? There is a life cycle to those decisions, which is why having a POHO could allow them to make GM changes or some personnel changes in Hockey ops without completing shifting the focus of the organization.

He's just speculating but Friedman notes Seattle potentially taking Gio and flipping him. Vegas did this on a smaller scale and it was very successful. Wound up getting multiple 2nd/3rd round picks by loading up on D and then flipping them.

I'd pass personally. My biggest issue with Raty is I think the offensive upside was over sold and it's not really there. His hockey sense is just ok, shot avg and I think what's hurt his numbers as he's gone up in league is once you take away time and space he sits back and plays more of a perimeter game. I'm not sure if it's a will thing or a skill thing, probably a mix of both, but I don't see his ability to produce good offensive numbers because once his space is taken away he doesn't have much to his game. he's a tremendous skater and shows good two way instincts so you could develop him as a bottom 6 center but I don't think that's the type of player you take in the first round.

Ya the downside is while the Habs are playing a very strong team game there is zero excitement level to any series they've been in and they are really riding the atrocious playoff officiating we are seeing. I have not been more surprised at a team making the finales since the Canes in 2002. I don't mean that as disrespect, this is the NHL and as much as talent is paramount it's still a league that if you get hot at the right time, get a few bounces your way you can ride it for a while. They deserve credit for their execution level and their coaches deserve a ton of credit. Their game planning is fantastic. At the same time, they could miss the playoffs next year and I would not at all be shocked. It's quite a run they are on here.

Kylington meets the games played requirement, just barely, as he's got 56 games over the last 2 seasons. They would have to sign him but he is eligible for exposure if they do. Not that it really matters as the Flames are going to have to exposure 1 of their top 4 dmen because they are not going to be a 4-4-1 team. The question more is do they pay Seattle to avoid them, but meeting the D exposure requirement is not an issue.

Looks like Tocchet won't get the Seattle job so see if that rumor about the Flames was true. I would be surprised if it was.

I did not get the same impression. He's made several remarks that he has frequent conversations with Francis. Both he and Gio both commented in their separate pressers they've had dialogue on this already. Honesty until I listened to it I didn't think the Flames exposing Gio was even remotely a possibility. I think you can excuse Trelving of a lot of things but being short sighted is not one of them IMO, he's pretty thorough. Every post season press conference with BT is going to have the "we'll now begin the process" but that's just GM speak IMO. Almost all of them say it.

Several plausible options. 1. The Flames don't want to lose him. 2. I doubt there was a trade market for him. Between his Modified NTC and another year at 6.75 most contenders can't fit that unless they are shipping back money. 3. The Flames are prepared to lose him in the expansion draft in order to keep others I don't get this idea that people actually think the Flames are going to spend a 1 to keep Gio, it isn't going to happen. A 3rd or a 4th? sure but it's not going to happen for more than that.

Agree, there is so much to it you just can't discount or reject a prospect because someone might think he has skating concerns. Just depends on what it is. The other flip side is sometimes prospects who can flat out flat in junior don't translate well either. I look at guys like Kylington and Angelo Esposito that were 2 phenomenal skaters in junior but one never made it in the NHL and the other looks like a tweener because while they are incredible skaters they don't have the hockey sense to keep up to their skating ability. Great skaters flop and sometimes people who are knocked for their skating turn it around. IMO you can't draw conclusions on either.

Honestly at this point I think you will be harder to find a scouting report where "could improve his skating" is not mentioned than finding a report where they call him a great skater. It's become such generic scout speak that I honestly would put so little stock into it. 5-10 years ago the speak was "get bigger and stronger" and now it's "he needs to improve his skating". Need to take it with a big grain of salt because depending on what the skating issue is then yes you can 100% improve your skating after you are drafted. Why I hate how it's mostly just a generic "not a good skater" or "needs to improve" and nothing of actual substance there. Sillinger can absolutely skate there is no question about that and I would not put him in the same category of Monahan or Tkachuk. Sillinger uses his edges really well and is very agile, especially once he is in the offensive zone. He gets to open areas and onto loose pucks in the offensive zone as good as anyone in this draft IMO. The 2 issues I have with Sillinger are effort/consistency with his two way game and lack of an explosive stride. I think his skating is fine, he gets up and down the ice fine but what is lacking is those first few strides to get him up to top speed quicker. However, I'm not as convinced that is lacking so much as his attention to detail in his d zone game. He can get lazy there at times and what I've found when I watch him is that generally he's back in time but then you seem him gliding into the zone and softer on pucks until the play goes the other way and then he is back on it. That is totally coachable as long as the player wants to be coached. I think he is a heck of a pick at 12 and likely would be going higher if he didn't go play in the US. After his WHL rookie year, he was looking like he would challenge Dylan Guenther for top WHL forward drafted.

I don't care what he makes this guy is a treasure. Trolls an entire city, crushing beers in the middle of the afternoon in public.