crazyflames

The biggest problem is that no players want to come to Calgary right now through free agent market. Also Calgary probably is the number 1 no trade destination for lot of players. In that regard, you don’t have much to play with it. So unless we fix this culture problem, this organisation is going no where. They just refuse to rebuild, that’s the biggest mistake for this organisation. I don’t think anybody new here is gonna making any difference, it’s still the old blood.

BT is not gonna count on Pelletier and Ruzie at this point, too much uncertainty. If he has made such gamble short-term, the win is now. He will get top 6 forward for sure, the question is what do we need to give up, most likely D. I don’t think he will touch another forward, we don’t have enough forward at this point.

Huberdeau said "I am open to it"... when he asked about long term deal with Calgary. Then he said, at the end of the day it's not my decision to make, it's GM and my agent... Now we all know it's his decision at the end. But I can also sense if the money is extremely good, he probably will consider. Given Flames has the cap space, and Flames should pay him well if they are seriously thinking retain him. Unlike Tkachuk, money is not enough for him, because he is just dying to get out here. This is the real reason why both Johnny and Tkachuk didn't win anything here as a flames, because winning the cup here is not their number 1 thing in their heart.

We can talk as much as we want about JH, but we are still not gonna win playoff round if we don’t fix the bottom 6. We can’t rely only our top line to score. So this off season is super important because I don’t think our lines are fixed yet. If Monahan somehow come back half of his best games, then we maybe enough to compete in this division. Otherwise we still need some forwards to help this group, JH is not enough to win your playoff.

yeah, but you are still not solving any problems. In fact, if our top line stop scoring, we would be in trouble last season. Now even with JH, we are about 100 points less than last season. So BT must address that, 3rd line forward is not enough to fit it.

Do you know if we scored 100 points less last season, would we able get into playoff? So how can we be any better? The math doesn't add up.

You can't replace 200+ points with JH. Calgary has cap space now, get a decent RW through trade, and making JH happy on the top line.

Seriously, this is the best news ever? Your two best players just told you that none of them want to play for this team. Do you know how difficult is has been for this organization for the players here or the ones coming? It has never happened in Calgary.

What facts do you have suggesting he will stay here. Its same 50/50% chance, that's what BT facing now. Obviously he is gonna thinking over this, it's not like he is gonna sign 10.5x8 right away.

Honestly I wish JH can sign here, just give him Gaudreau contract. But I also don't know how can you guys have so much confidence after you just lose not one but two of your best players at the same time.

Because only Columbus can afford him. NJ is out of the game.

There is really no other options on the table, FLA had best asset and BT has to take it even it's UFA. BT is not going to rebuild now, otherwise he lose his job. He must come up with a winning team. By getting JH and Weegar, Flames has a chance to get into playoff this year. This is the reason he hired Sutter for Stanley Cup not for rebuild. Just think about this, if you are BT, you know that your job is on the line. If you go rebuild now, you are gonna lose your job right away. By losing your 2 top stars is just too much for the city and this organization. If you savage this season, you might get chance to continue your job. Doesn't matter what BT does, rebuild has nothing to do with him, it won't be his job. His job is to win now, and this is the last year left as most players are UFA 2023 or 2024.

JH is from Quebec.

On top of that you also have Sutter. Players usually good under him first couple years, but gets tired after awhile.

Agree, we had good top 6 for now, not great, but good. However our bottom 2 lines are still horrible or worse than last year. Little bit too rich on defense and we can't afford it in longer term. So it make sense to trade some D to upgrade Top 6 or 3rd line. Between the 2, I rather BT upgrade Top 6 and go for it this year. Go big or go home.

Bring in JH is the best option BT had, and it a best trade and the only trade. BT doesn't have lot of options here and he doesn't know if he can re-sign them. However you have to realize that JH is pretty unhappy right now how this things played out. So it will be difficult to resign him unless we have Stanley Cup potential, otherwise he can finally go to Montreal after this year.

Forget about Monahan, if we could move him, we have already done so.

We will most likely in rebuild mode after this season as most players' contract end in 2023 or 2024. If we sign Kadri for 7 years, that will be biggest mistake we ever made after Gaudreau. If you want to win this year, you don't sign free agents for long contract without knowing Huberdeau or Weegar future. You ship young asset maybe even draft picks to get top 6 forward, and you try to win. If you do, u might able to keep Huberdeau or Weegar. If you lose this season, I am pretty sure all the UFAs will be gone by end of the season, then what's the point to sign Kadri for 7 years with huge contract.

You really can't blame BT for Gaudreau and Tkachuk. If you didn't see this coming then you have been in Calgary for too long. Tkachuk wants to go somewhere like 3 years ago, and he is not that happy here. As for Gaudreau, he just doesn't like the pressure from the fans here. Maybe they made mistake by not naming Captain on this team. There is no soul in this team right now, no leadership, and no commitment. Look what Ottawa did for brother Tkachuk, they give him the responsibility. Anyway, BT did the best he can do for Tkachuk trade. It' not like what u think every team had good offers since everyone know you have no leverage. Even we lose Huberdeau and Weegar at end of the season, I still think we get 1st round and 2nd round coming back given their friendly contract. So that's Tkachuk for 2 1st round + 2nd round + prospect, not bad given so little team and so little time. As for Gaudreau if he thinks team first, we could end up got something in return. Thats why I think Tkachuk is pretty decent. If you have no plan to be here, don't waste time here and trying to help the organization little bit. As for BT, if he fail to sign Huberdeau by end of the season, he will be gone too. He won't be doing the rebuild, 8 years is longer enough for him to be GM here. So if I am him at this point, I go bold. I make a trade to bring top 6 forward and I go all the way trying to win something this year. It's do or die situation here, either way he is probably gone.

Weegar probably demand 6M x 5, I am not sure Calgary can afford to spend so much money on D without shipping someone out.

No way I will pay Huberdeau more than Gaudreau and he is older too. 9.5 to 10M for Huberdeau is reasonable. Half million more is not gonna change those players mind if they don't want to stay here. Both Hubereau and Weegar will have good return, probably couple first rounds. This was BT plan, if doesn't work out we go rebuild, its' just won't be him doing it. It's not like he has many choices when he was trading Tkachuk, it was the best deal he can get and he knows the risk.

Our 3rd line and 4th line looks horrible. They need somebody on top 6 or they really need to fix the bottom 6.

Whatever we have now is not enough to keep Huberdeau here in Calgary. We need to have a serious Stanly Cup contender team in order for players to stay in Calgary because this is the only reason why players will stay here now. Calgary is really look like Winnipeg right now, by losing both Gaudreau and Tkachuk really hurts the image. No kidding, this looks really bad right now. BT knows this year is not the time for rebuild, he might as well go bold. If things doesn't work out, he won't be the one doing rebuild anyway. He is trying to savage this season an going for playoff. But we lost 200+ points by adding back only 100, not enough in this league. You need someone to play with Huberdeau, he got the cap space, and he needs to make another trade because I just don't see any free agents want to come to Calgary now given so much uncertainty.

There is no way Edmonton will trade Puljujarvi to Calgary, don't even think about it. Same as Calgary won't ship anyone has potential to Edmonton either.

Keep in mind, we are still have some issues right now. Players will think twice come to Calgary, so don't expect Kadri sign here. He didn't want to come last time, why he wants to do it now? It's pretty bad moment right now. In addition, after hearing BT interview, I can sense he hasn't talk to Huberdeau or Weegar about contract yet. There is a good amount probability they won't resign here either. As I said, for the time being, I don't think many players want to play in Calgary right now given you just lost your two best players. However I thank Matthew at least being honest to help out the organization at the end.