travel_dude

We have had a few issues. One change resulted in a lot of posters losing their accounts. FF52 was one of them, but he managed to get back on for awhile. We had a few other issues, the most recent was about a year ago. They changed the security on the site and the links. Some probably have not been able to get on since that one. We have seen a few "people" post weird threads with hyperlinks to obscure topics. Those have been hidden, so no worries.

Ah Manu12, been awhile. Good to see people able to get back in. The change to the website killed off quite a few.

I think it's fairly safe to expect Backlund to not want anything close to this type of deal. Likely he feels that he gave his best years to the team and expects a similar payback. High cap or longer term at close to his current hit. But, I get the logic of a 2 year deal. Gets you to the big cap era. Salaries will go up on average. Not so good for a 34 year old though. Bumps into 35+ contract issues. Staal deal should be the model for him. 2.9M AAV over 4 years, if you want to stay in the same organization. IF he gets traded and gets close to his typical numbers then he would be getting better than Staal on a new deal. Anyway, trade him. Will likely take a hit with the replacement not able to do the same stuff. Can't really go into the season without it being dealt with. A good season and we are stuck trying to sign him or trade him while we try to make the playoffs. A bad season and he's not worth much.

Perhaps that has something to do with the way he is talking; knowing that the Flames want to get younger. I support moving out a 34 year old. We aren't the retirement club now. I was surprised that CAR re-signed Staal for as long as they did. Yeah, I get we have a couple like that here, but they are years away from retirement. We can offload later.

That's a stretch. The players have suggested a toxic work environment. To call them a bunch of babies is silly. They are pros and conduct themselves that way. If you can't even meet with the coach to bounce ideas with, what is the point. Two players that have suggested they want to play elsewhere; one being Toffoli who went from 3rd line to top line. Got his career season so he wants a big contract. Won't get it in Calgary and likely won't top his career season. Backlund wanted to be captain. Played a 3rd line role and has only been a top C for one year maybe. Maybe try a modern coach that doesn't use methods that only work on one or two guys. When things don't work out and the team fails every goal they had, the time is right to fire the coach. Even if he is not responsible for every issue.

The good thing about that statement is we know there isn't a lot of dicking around. None of the, give me a day to talk to the player. He thinks he has leverage, but the only leverage is what is the best offecr we can get. So, you probably gave your list of teams. And you probably said what you terms were. Lose the trade for all I care. Get it done prior to the draft and UFA season. What, you only have 10 teams? Well, guess what, we will accept crap for you from the last team on the list. Or come to you and say, here is the only team that wants you. Get ready to play out your contract year on the 4th line. LOL

Draft day only matters for this year's drat. We have the players for the remainder of the 23/24 season.

WHo do you think the core is? Generally, it's Lindy, Hubey, Kadri (like it or not), Mange/Dube, Ras, Weegar, Kylington, Marky/Vladar/Wolf. And, apart from last year's results, every one of those player could have another breakout season. That could last 2-3 years. Every team that has won the cup in the last 5 years has vets starting to get up there and young guys coming in. At a reduced cost (ELC or cheap 2nd deal). 5 years out, we have to start replacing some of the vets. Great, we have a new set of D and a new G. That's about it.

Well, you probably aren't remembering a lot of debate we had on here about who the top prospects were in CGY. I don't think his height really makes a big difference, but remember he is very slight still. Not a big body. Not wide. Not built like a brick Satoshi Nakamotohouse. That plays into holding the crease. Not getting run over. Protecting the posts. Whether or not he can come in and play 20-30 games this season doesn't matter regarding his trade value. He is a prospect and the trade would take that into consideration.

Well, you have to think about a few things. We have a team that has a few years where the "core" is in the compete now phase. So, you have to get as many F in now to have them join in 2-3 years and help the team. Sure, the long term goals are to have layers of players coming in, but focusing on D and G means you ignore the others. And you perhaps are no longer going with BPA.

Seeing as goalies that haven't played yet in the NHL with that type of awards, I have no real value to compare him to. So rarely traded. Why would you want to? If you got a 1st for him, would that be worth it? Then we have little to no G prospects even close.

I have no issue with either Zary or Pelletier. Both are going to develop into NHL players. They are somewhat par for where they were taken. Early returns on others taken in those drafts are deceiving. I tend to think that we are not well stocked at F. So, it's not a question of them being ready to help the NHL team in a shorter time. To me you need to have 4-5 guys ready for NHL in call up situations and as a way to reduce cap and not sign middling guys. F to D should be 2-1 ratio. As such, you need to be better at those D picks. I'm fine with taking one yer and loading up D, but not ignoring F.

Why do that? A goalie that is mostly undersized is not going to get you a ton. A goalie without NHL experience is not proven. A team would take a risk on him, but put him in the AHL. We can do that if he doesn't do well right from the start. Still a high rated prospect in the system.

Unless there is some kinda D stud that drops to us, I would prefer to get a F in round one and look at the rounds after that to get some D. 2nd round is lucky for us, most years. We make some odd choices. I suspect there will be some different strategy used this year. It seemed to rely on proving a player was worthy of being called BPA. I don't think there was much in the way of analytics or high risk/high reward. Poirier and Kuz were polar opposites but went in the same round. Both have ??. Not really high risk.

Naw, save it for another day. Too late for this year's draft. You might get a piece or two from the "reported" traitors. But really what you have is the makings of a team that could be a bubble team this year. If they are below a certain point, sell some of the pending UFA's you still have and bottom out a bit. If you are above a certain point, still sell off those pieces but pick up ones the big tankers are letting go, mostly ones with some term and some salary. Weaponize the cap space. I'm not keen on blowing up any team. The reported traitors leaving will leave you very little in the new core. You can't blow that up too.

All I am saying is that there are far too many F's that will get drafted before some of these guys go. Stankoven went pretty late, and yes the size may have played into it. I find we don't evaluate D that well, or if we do, don't pick them soon enough. Fox, Ras, Kylington, Valimaki, Poirier and Kuz seem to the the only ones of note. The latter two are still WIP. I would like to see us get a gem like Ras/Kyl/Fox in later rounds. Get some extra bullets, don't have to all be 1st round.

Think beyond the 1st round. Some guys that could be later steals if they make it to the 2nd or later: Gulyayev - 5'10" LHS Beau Akey - 6'0" RHS Oskar Asplund - 511" LHS (19 years old) Tristan Bertucci - 6'2" LHS Hunder Brzustewicz - 6'0" RHS

Elite Prospects top 32 is interesting. Has wood at 16, Barlow 17, Willander at 23. McKean and Dobber have Reinbacher at 16.

Tkachuk was not a setup guy. All he had to do was hit Gaudreau with a breakaway pass from a standstill, pass from behind the net to Johnny, while the rest of the time he was Satoshi Nakamoto disturbing, pouncing on rebounds, and sitting on his off wing looking for a one-timer. It was up to Gaudreau or Lindholm to set him up. What was Huberdeau set up with? A more likely puck distributor and a collection of RHS depth guys. The only games he played LW were at the start and at the end. Lacklustre number? I wonder why. How often had he played RW in the past? I would suggest little to none.

I'm thinking Simashev

Certainly a revisionist version of history. You do remember how long Sutter was here with Bennett? About a month. And it was Gaudreau first, followed by Tkachuk followed by Monahan trade/Kadri signing. After the 5 wins in 6 games to start the season, the problems started. You can easily blame poor coaching decisions like playing a top LW on RW or blame the poor goaltending or blame the individual players or prospects, but I don't think you can say it's all on one player. I LOL'd about the Oilers offering DS a stint. Too funny. That is a team run by one player. The GM gets players he suggests. The lines are decided by CMD. The minutes are based on CMD. It's harly a team.

What 3 are they? Weegar? Seriously? $6+M for a top D when the top paid ones will be over 12M? Hubey may fall off his game about the same time Gaudreau does. I doubt it's anytime sooner than the end of season 4 (5th as a Flame). At that time, big deal, you trade him and pay the price, like Monahan. Or retain half. Similar to a buyout but half the length of time. I doubt he blocks the trade, if it's not a bottom feeder. It will be a pain but if they tool correctly, he's more like a Jordan Staal or Blake Wheeler. Potential to still hit 80 points.

TRo quote someone.... "another LHS forward, just what the Flames need". LOL

Those that choose to blames BT will find every possible excuse to do so. 90-100% of coach firings are because they failed to meet expectations. Creating a toxic environment is a firing offense regardless of results. So, in reasons why Sutter was fired 50% toxic, 35% performance, and 15% player whining. A brialliant hockey mind adapts to the teams being played and the on ice events. Rolling 4 lines is what a stopwatch can do. Sub par performance by a line or a player should result in a change. Change a player to get away from his strengths. Sit young players that had a bad game and throw them on the 4th line. A rebuild is very unlikely even though that is the only thing you want to see. Lots of picks. Lots of tracking junior or Euro careers. Meanwhile, we structured the team to turn pver player when they hit a certain age. All but Backlund and Markstrom are in the 2-3 years out stage. We have been talking about trading out Backlund and Tanev and somewhat Toffoli for ages. Get the best return for an older player that is a supplemental player. Or in Tanev's case one that is starting to get more injuries. But if one single player is rumored to want to move back to the USA, it's a pandemic. Sutter hocket sucked the life out of this team. The only happy ones managed to have career seasons. Toffoli who never played top line. Zadorov who played closer to his original expectations. Funny how Gudbranson didn't sign even though he "loved" Sutter. Sutter was as much of a jerk about Guddy's tongue being split in half. Compared the injury to stitching up a cow's tongue. You can be a prick and win games. Being a prick and not getting results is a waste of time.

I think you could trade Hanifin to VAN for at least their 1st. No need to trade the best D we have. If you get 7 years out of Weegar, that is likely better quality minutes than you get in the same time with Hanifin. So, Hanifin for 1st + Hoglander or Kravtsov. Maybe an added piece from them. Has to be willing to sign, which maybe isn't going to happen. The other thought is Hanifin for 8th. Maybe they would add something. Or 10th + Blais or Kapanen. Or 12th + Maccelli or Crouse.