cross16

I don't. I think if there was a chance to get a franchise altering talent the Flames would be in on it and pull the trigger if it made sense. Think Treliving's history has shown he will.

Draws some Hathaway comparisons from some of what i've read. Not an overly skilled player but hard working, big frame that he can use, and good smarts. Right shot as well. Fills a position of organizational need to even though the upside may not be high it's worth the shot and a good target.

I'm assuming you mean the 21/22 season? Yes he'll be eligible.

Al Coats, pretty underrated GM who was just hired at the wrong time for the Flames. Unfortunate timing on what could have been a good Gm but story of life in the Flames organization. thanks for posting that, because his rationale is bang on. When you have to move high end talents I think this is the better play.

I think we also need to point out how rare it is that players like Kawaii Leonard are even available. The only reason he was available in trade is he had a falling out with the medical staff of the Spurs and had a strong desire to return home to LA to play. Trades like that come around once in a blue moon. Huge props to Masai and the Raptors for pulling it off but a lot of circumstances came together to make that possible.

No rush, but I suspect you'll see him signed after his season. I don't suspect they will want him back in junior for his overage year and he's already spent 4 full years in junior.

Parsons will for sure be exposed, they need to in order to satisfy the goalie exposure requirement. That or they'd have to re sign Dominque for another year but Parsons wouldn't get claimed anyway so he'll get exposed. I think the Flames protect list is pretty straightforward now, at least for me, but it woudn't shock me if the club protects Gio or works a deal with Seattle to take a certain player. Gio would not get claimed I don't think, but it's also very much a Flames style move to value him more than they should. That's the only scenario I see here. a forward is going to need to get signed in order to be exposed and it will need to be 1 of Simon, Nordstrom or Ryan so look for that.

I don't think it's in the DNA of the ownership group either, which is why Sutter was hired. It's not a miss opportunity too much for this draft as while there are good players, to your point not a lot of franchise altering ones and really tanking only makes sense if you can get that franchise altering talent. There are a few coming up. But with the rules changes you do have to be careful and what the Oilers did is no longer achievable IMO. Look at Detroit, they've stripped it down to rebuild and because of some poor lottery luck are now having to extend the plan.

There is some truth to this I would say but some doesn't make sense. The Flames have let players go, mostly recently Brodie who spent his whole career here, but i'm also not sure what the angle is here? The Panthers moved Trochek in what is looking to be a pretty awful trade so the Flames should make an awful trade just so they can say they did? I think you can always make bad trades but good trades are hard to come by. I guess we've come to that point in the fan base what people just want change for the sake of change and I can understand that but for me you still need to make good deals. I think the Flames could have moved Gaudreau at the deadline if they wanted but I suspect most would hate the deal. At the same time, I think this is a pretty conservative ownership group who still has their hands on the wheels too much. Maybe i'm wrong and blame management but for me this has franchise has been operated the same way through the last 4-5 different GMs so i'm looking higher. I think the mandate here is stil playoffs every single year and that takes a certain amount of transactions off the table for the GM. The smarter move would be to move assets like Gaudreau/Monahan etc for futures and not win now moves but my suspicion is that avenue is not available to the GM.

There is not a link for me personally because I don't think the Flames game has changed that much. Despite the record they've actually been playing fairly solid hockey for the last couple weeks. They just were getting poor goaltending and weren't putting the puck in the net and so far since the little break out there it's flipped. Markstrom playing much better and they are burying more chances. I would point to the re balancing of the lines as a bigger benefit than Bennett being moved.

To be fair, he's actually played pretty well down there. He started the season lower down the lineup but has worked his way up and now he's in the top 6 and seeing some PP time. 2 points in 2 games is an extremely small sample size so not worth getting excited about but jsut saying he hasn't looked out of place in his AHL rookie season when i've watched. I still don't think he's going to make it, but too soon to completely write him off I think. He is 5th in QMJHL scoring for dmen this year, albeit to have that many over a PPG isn't very common, but I wouldn't say it's special but it is good company. For context, Thomas Chabot wasn't a PPG until his D+2 season but Samuel Girard was a PPG dmen in his draft year and D+1. Poirier is only slightly behind Girard's pace. Poirier is a really intriguing prospect and the points are going to need to be there because his defensive game is a huge work in progress. Good flyer though. It felt this way after it was over, and so far the early returns are backing it up, but I think there is many reasons to be very excited about the 2020 draft class for the Flames. It might, stress might, wind up as quite the haul for the organization.

Honestly this is a good idea IMO. I don't think either side is in a position to just throw more money and I think it's likely the rise in many of the costs is temporary in nature. No sense turning this into a Montreal Olympic stadium fiasco.

This is not really a Flames thing it's a league thing. Look at the first round the last couple of drafts (and this year) and you will see that players are getting "smaller" because the game is changing. Game is about speed and skill and if you are looking for players that have size, speed AND skill your typically drafting them in the top 10 now. Sure you could argue the Flames should prioritize size more but keep in mind that was the direction under both Burke and Sutter and look how that turned out. If the goal is to shoot for upside, which IMO it always should be, then you are going to be taking flyers on guys that are small because that is who is available to you. Big, skilled players are not often sitting around in the mid to later rounds.

Flames have another potential late round find in the draft. Ryan Francis was taken in the 5th round last year and last night had a 6 point night in the QMJHL. He is up to 6th in QMJHL scoring. Ahead of 1st round picks like Pelletier, Marvik Bourque, Dawson Mercer(they are basically tied in Pts/game) and Hendrik Lappiere. He is also a RS. On the small side yes but another intriguing player having a heck of a season this year.

Agreed, I don't think it's well understood how detrimental it can be to making gM changes. It can take years before change can happen. That's not me saying you keep BT to avoid that change, it's just a general comment around the league. Coaches can be swapped out pretty easily, I don't fee that way about GMs. I don't even blame GMs, it's more of an organization failure to me. Jay Feaster should never have been hired in the first place, never been given the go ahead to rebuild and the organization should never have pushed for a quick end to the rebuild. It's an organizational flaw for me.

The "worry" is that the Panthers have Barkov, a level of player the Flames don't come very close to touching IMO. Quenville is also, IMO at least, the best coach in the game and up there in terms of coaches in league history. It's not quite the same story so I didn't want to draw a direct comparison to the Flames. But your last point i would agree, I don't think the Florida Panthers are a great example of team building (that was my point) but they got pretty lucky a coach the caliber of Joel Quenville was available to them.

It doesn't get talked about enough IMO, but the start of the Flames rebuild was a disaster. Blew the trades of the assets they had at the time (Iginla, Jbow) and then blew the first 2 drafts, is just a recipe for disaster when you have an organization that was depleted of assets to begin with. Now you've got 1 NHL player left from those 2 drafts, they have 2 from 2015 alone. Those players should be in their prime helping the team and not having those assets is also why the Flames constantly have had to shed picks the other way. Good way to keep spinning your wheels as an organization.

Funny enough Florida looked a lot like the Flames until they hired Quenville. That move shouldn't be understated. I agree with conundrumed that Florida looks good going forward but I think Quenville is a huge part of that.

Well what is giving him a pass? he has faults here for sure but am I giving him a pass just because I don't think he should lose his job? I think there are mistakes he has made absolutely that are partly to blame for this I just don't think it should all be put on his shoulders. Here is where I stand with Treliving. There are valid reasons for people to want him gone and those are fair. I can get behind people that don't like the way he's built the team or the type of player he's gone after and I can understand there are also people that believe in results and that results should be the ultimate factor (ie bad results = fired). There are fair points there and I certainly would not campaign aggressively that you shouldn't move on. But for me when it comes to why are the Flames were they are today the problems I see don't start with the GM, they start with the players and perhaps ownership. Did Treliving deal away too many picks, no question. But my question there is was that his doing or is this an organization mindset that we have to be doing everything it takes to win every year? Was hiring Geoff Ward a big mistake? yes IMO it was but again what's the backstory here? Was he actually Treliving's choice or was that the more affordable option after it seems Sutter said no? IMO the biggest reason the Flames are stuck this year is Monahan, Gaudreau and Tkachuk have all either plateaued or in many cases taken a step backwards in their performance. I don't think the GM is at fault for that. I can get behind the rationale of well he should have seen this coming and traded them either last summer or years ago. It's a fair comment but at the same time can we really blame him for this if we don't know the offers that were made? Most of the rumors that I heard involving Monahan last summer would have made this place erupt if he pulled the trigger. with Treliving, I generally see a GM that is moving things in the right direction, has the right process or idea behind his moves and is targeting the right players. Results aren't there but I see mostly factors outside of his control that have influenced that. I will admit though if i'm wrong about how this organization operates than perhaps I could be influenced differently, but I don't suspect I am. Gone on a bit of a rant here and problem the wrong thread to do this in too, but as a closing thought here on the GM. The Flames have been around for 40 years now and Treliving is the 2nd best GM they've ever had. So part of my thinking is why would we expect a new GM to behavior differently than this one and two do we really think they are going to hire a better one? Yes i am ok with him staying but I do understand the other side of this too.

I think criticism is more than fair but should that criticism not be on fair grounds? It seems to me Treliving's negotiation style if more than common around the league so why has it created a "lethal environment" here but other teams it isn't an issue? Lethal environment also sounds pretty unfair to me. Criticism is more than ok as is wanting him gone. I blame the players personally but to each their own on that one. I just think criticism and blame should be on fair grounds and i'm not seeing how it's fair to blame him for situations that didn't happen (Gio holding out) or situations that don't seem to impact other teams (ie the long list of players who have held out as RFAs).

I like what I've seen so far. Type of player the Flames don't have a ton of, that north-south speed player who can retrieve pucks on the forecheck. Not sure there is a lot of offensive upside to his game from what i've seen. Doesn't shoot the puck very well but at the same time there seems to be some untapped potential here. Was on a tear at the end of his SHL season. Only one other player has scored at the same clip he did in the Superelite league in their draft year and that player was Anze Kopitar.

I'm assuming you mean Gio here? Gio hasn't held out under Treliving that was Sutter. Treliving extended Gio a full year before he was set to become a UFA. Last year the Lightning had Brayden Point hold out until training camp only to have him come back on a short term deal. Didn't seem to impact that culture. It's becoming very common to have these young RFAs unsigned into training camp.

NM. Wrong thread and already posted.

On the scoresheet yes, but when I tune in he is still consistently their best player. Luke Philip has been good too. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a look at some point.

Zagidulin onto the taxi squad too. I would have called up Phillips myself but I get this move too. I'm not as high on Ruzicka as some but hopefully he can get a chance and not just in terms of seeing the ice but with legit players too. He isn't a grinder.