cross16

I don't think it's Bean who is giving the orders. Your kidding... but i'm not laughing......

I think Chris O'Hearn is a name we may hear about during this search. Wasn't on my radar initially but Maloney hired him in Arizona, he spent a season here as a pro scout and now is in Minnesota as the AGM. Getting a lot of praise as a young up and comer, really smart, law background, and got a lot of praise for guiding the Wild through the last couple summers with their cap. He is the top contract negotiator for the Wild. Fits the profile of what Maloney mentioned in the press conference.

IMO it comes down to expectations. "Always earned never given" works really well when there are no outside expectations that your team is going to win anything because it becomes galvanizing message. Work hard and we'll prove them wrong (same card Sutter played last year) but once there are expectations that you are going to win that message becomes challenging. I worked 100% last year and we overachieved so now to achieve the next level I have to work what 110%? 120%? What's the message/communication on the days I don't have 100%? Couple that with behind the scenes you know coaches like Hartley/Sutter are really grinding on the players that once you stop overachieving its a team, or any losing sets in, it really highlights that at the end of the day my coach is just an Hash Rate. My working theory anyway. Why i think you don't see a lot of coaches start and finish a rebuild. The coach who gets you to that consistent level is almost never the one who keeps you there because the message has to change and in some cases the coach does too. Catch 22 though because that same coach got the success doing it his way so what's his motivation to change? Why i think that even though I agree Sutter needs to change the way he coaches I don't think he will.

You weren't the only one. I mean it's a weird story because I think in most cases why would we care if someone who plays a mascot is retiring? Scott is a great guy though. Know him through a mutual friend and he came to one of my kids hockey parties. Great guy.

Might want to amend the title. The guy under the suit, Scott, is retiring from being Harvey. Harvey, as a mascot for the Flames, isn’t done and I’d be shocked if that changes.

Honestly, can’t say I’m well versed enough in it to have an opinion.

Well first off this assumes he "worked magic" last year. There were concerns about this last year too especially post playoffs (where he got out coached by a rookie head coach). But why do we assume a coaches performance year over year is the same? I don't think we saw the same Sutter this year as we did last year and many close to the team (including Warrener who use to play for him) pointed this out too. Last year he played the us against the world card and it worked. This year he had no such plan and IMO ended up over coaching the team by creating a negative atmosphere from the get go. He wasn't the same coach this year. I agree with not putting this all on Sutter, it's not all the coach but I think this narrative that he was fantastic last year and therefore shouldn't be looked at this year is false. Like many of the good players here, his performance slid. I would also be cautious about blaming the GM for losing the core as a means to absolve the head coach. Think he was very much a factor in the core not being here.

Deeds is right. Snow brought analytics to the Flames under Feaster. Snow has always been regarded as a top analytics guy and i do recall hearing that the programs they initially invested in were top notch. Treliving did expand it thought. Hired David Johnston shortly after he was hired and then added 2 more 2 years ago I believe. But it was Feaster who brought it here.

I thought it was conclusive too. Think the NHL got that one wrong.

I have my phone on standby.. hasn't rang yet i'm afraid....

I'll say this all off-season. No reason he should not be playing in the NHL next year and getting a good amount of games. Steingberg floated an idea on the fan the other day. He thought they should leverage the Wranglers being here and shuttle Wolf up and down between AHL - NHL. Because the AHL schedule is so wonky you could have Wolf play probably 15 or so NHL games and still have him playing in the AHL too. I hate the idea personally but it is a potential option. I just don't see the hesitation of giving him 20-30 games next year.

The way I interpreted this, is the context is around seeing if Sutter even wants to come back or gauging if he is willing to change how he operates. I think that conversation should be had as part of a normal year end conversation and doesn't require a "new" GM.

No Maloney/GM level.

My seats for sure would get scooped up so that is part of it. I love my seats. I'm less concerned about getting back in if/when I want. I think the demand has fallen quite a bit to the point where I (and others I know who had STH) were bascially having to give games away last year. a playoff run will increase the demand but it's been many many years since the wait list existed so I feel getting back in would not be the problem. My debate is do I lose my seats and my STH priority and how do my kids handle the news as they love going to games.

So you target RS then what happens when you need a LW or a D? Coronato also wasn't a reach at all and Coleman played RW in Tampa. Point is, if you are not afforded patience to build through the draft then you need to add key pieces via UFA. That alone is going to lead to pricey contracts and then when you add in the fact your going to have to pay more to key players to Calgary you have your results we've seen here. Drafting more RS wouldn't have changed that.

Friedman alluded to this, but apparently one of the points of discussion with Sutter is around vets like Lucic. The message being that if you want to come back fine but we are not signing these types of players and you are going to have make due with what WE give you. No more security blankets. The silence from him after the season makes me wonder if discussion like this have some validity to them. I know Sutter will get out of talking to the media/fans at almost all cost, but it's pretty rare to not hear from a coach after a season.

That is a great letter. I am a season ticket holder and for the first time in 12 years I am thinking I wont' renew and have a similar email que'd up to send. Getting too frustrated with the direction of this team and quite frankily i'm just fed up with Murray Edwards. I'm having a hard time giving him any money.

I think this piece is pretty simple. When you have a mandate of being in the playoffs every year you can't afford to leave holes on your roster, and when you combine that with the needing to trade draft picks you're going to leave significant holes. Therefore UFA become a pretty key tool to build out the team. Then combine that with the fact that you have one of the more undesirable markets in the NHL, your not in a position of strength when it comes to UFA. I personally think the narrative that Treliving was bad at UFA is wrong. He had his misses but, but more often than not he got good players and the right players to reasonable deals. You will always overpay in UFA but that goes back to why do you need to be so active in the first place?

I really don’t get the love affair with Vladar. He was at best an avg back up last year and he was one of the worst goalies in the league this year. trade him without a second thought imo. I don’t think he is near as good as he is perceived in this market.

sounds like you know Murray Edwards

Yeah i didn't get that. I took that as a PR spin myself. I think they were trying to to placate fans by suggesting they are always looking at whether to rebuild or not. Thought the answer reeked of ego and very much a "we know better than you" type of answer. I don't believe for a second they considered it last summer (despite what Bean suggested) and I don't think for a second they'll consider it until they absolutely have to.

Well he did state that they had a "futures" offer for Tkachuk last summer but decided against it. Alluded to the fact they felt they had too many good pieces. he also pointed to the analytics in his answer around why he felt we shouldn't overreact. He may be getting fooled but i'm not sure it's in the way you describe. I'm not sure I'd consider 11-6-4 against a soft schedule a "run".

Expectation should be the Maloney runs it as the interim GM. not sure if he delegates it but that's his job as the interim GM. If the Flames go external for the hire then the new candidate likely won't start until after the draft (unless the person is currently not employed by a team maybe) but no one currently employed in the league is likely to be in the chair at the draft. Don't want draft secrets shared. So I would expect Maloney to run it unless they promote internally.

I understand he is tough but i've also read that his players love playing for him. Think there is a lot of room to be as a coach in between hard arse and soft/hands off coach. The good ones in today's game find the balance between when to be tough but also be compassionate.

I won't disagree but I will point out I have heard rumors that ownership actually told Treliving if he came back he had the full authority to fire Sutter if he chose to do so. Rumor only though.But in reading between the lines on all of this I don't think this came down to a decision of Sutter vs Treliving. I think Treliving just wanted to move on.