travel_dude

No doubt a lot. Read what FN says about him, based on scouting reports... https://flamesnation.ca/news/the-son-of-a-longtime-nhler-broke-auston-matthews-single-season-junior-scoring-record

Yet some of the best markets are the warmest. California, Vegas, Florida. Fans in vegas walking to the game in 95 F degree weather. No different in early spring. Florida a bit different, but should I go to the beach or watch hockey. It 85 degrees out, hmmm I think I want to get cool. Nice cool hockey rink where I need a hoodie.

The thing that seems to favor Perreault (in rankings) is his seingle season scoring record. My preference would be Wood, Barlow first, but those may not make it to us.

Three interesting players, but not sure what the chances of them making it to us.... Colby Barlow Ryan Leonard Gabe Perreault

Can't be trusting the 6'6" guy we have or the 5'11" guy either. Anyway, not really arguing against it. I think we gotta fix the goalie development/coaching at the NHL level before we ruin anyone else.

I think if you looked at a couple of those goalies drafted, you would see a development fail. Parsons was personal, but they didn't exactly deal with him very well. Troubled young man. Gillies you may possibly blame the hip injury. Or how they chose the other guy, maybe rightly so. I think the NCAA is a risk for picking goalies. Especially ECAC or whatever they call it now.

I think we have 34 contracts of 50 right now. While it is smart to look at unsigned players, simply watching one series is not a great way to find the gems. Puljujarvi was a standout at the U18, along with Laine. Neither would be top 5 in a redraft.

Let me retract that, can't be agreeing 3 times in the same 12 month period. Ah well, my other reply should negate that. LOL

One might argue we did exactly that. We drafted early for a goalie in 2012, 2014 and 2016. The choices of top rated guys in their draft year (except MacDonald) make sense. They didn't forsee the future of how those guys would be handled or end up. We proceeded to add Kulak, Ras and Kylington. As well as trading for a top RHS D. Managing the assets is a different story.

I liked Tkachuk on my team, but he was also frustrating for years. He can spin whatever story he likes about why he wanted to play in FLA. I don't buy any of it. He's Walt's boy, and FF52 would have warned us to expect this, had he been around. I don't blame him for wanting to go to FLA. But save me the excuses MT. You went with Brady and pops to look at a boat in FLA, long before you "decided" to ask for a trade.

I wasn't clear. I meant sign them and give them some dev time in the AHL. No worse than signing Phillips to an ELC. Or Spencer Foo or or or. I'm not suggesting he was a can't miss prospect, but we have given other deals to players like this. Perhaps this is just a hangover from the BT days. BT and Connie would have discussed signing him at some point this year. And maybe the shared opinion was he (and the others) were failed picks. Move on.

I would be fine with Love if we got rid of some of the guys behind the bench and brought in some guys that could perhaps add some good experience. They have been here for years. A promotion of Love likely signals to them that they should look elsewhere anyway. Huska brought a good PK to the team, but I don't know their defensive play otherwise is super. Labarbara the goalie coach. Can't credit him really can we? Muller. Uggg. I've not been a fan of him so I can't really provide a good opinion of his coaching.

Sure, but you don't always look ahead and discount everything done prior. Two partial seasons since being drafted and they don't even bother with an ELC. Not great seasons, sure. But two developed prospects and you don't even look at them in the AHL.

Looks like we are losing Beck. Not sure what the justiifcation is for this.

So, STL, WAS and COL are examples of teams that only won the cup when they bought the right players. I leave out TBL who bought the cup with additions. For sure, you need to draft and develop top players. We drafted 4 players, none of which are still here. We bought the wrong players before those players expired. Buying is also trading for them by using picks. We didn't do that part well at all. The Hammy trade was awesome, then it resulted in a Hammy trade. Hammer was nopt good. Toffoli is fine, but that is a bit late. Jarnkrok was bad. So, you draft, develop, trade and buy the team to win. Need the right coach there too. We did each of those things, but unlike the winners, we did them at different times. And here we sit.

I was comparing him to hiring Love. I agree with what you are saying about Phillips. Bennett played with Backlund on the wing, but it never lasted, even if it was a good thing. Bennett-Bcklund-Tkachuk. But that was before we discovered that Tkachuk could play on RW. So Bennett paid the price and never adapted to RW either. The one way deal only matters in what he gets paid in the AHL. I was just saying it because Phillips will not sign a 2-way deal in CGY.

Denver is a big market? Didn't they buy a cup? Buying includes all the players they added in trades, like Manson and Lehkonen. I agree that you need superior drafting and development. But coaching has an impact the the dev and team aspects. You definitely need younger guys on ELC's and cheap 2nd contracts to build under the cap. You can't expect to get there when you pay $5.75M for a 4th line bruiser. Or you let go three top 6 players.

Okay I get it now. You would have to think that Love is in BT's head as well. If you see Sheldon fired, then you may have a good idea of where he is going. LOL

Huh? Did I miss some story? What is the "this".

I'm thinking that Tkacuk in the playoffs now is what he lacked in a line last year. Gaudreau was too soft for intense playoff competition playing with Tkachuk. Tkachuk was go to the net while Johnny was shoot from the angle. Had we had Huberdeau instead, it might have been a different result last year. Had we been able to trade Johnny for Huberdeau (and got rid of Sutter) would have had a different end result. We would have a bigger aging LW and Tkachuk. Huberdeau is built better for the playoffs. Johnny G is a different type of performer.

I think what you have is results vs expectations. The spending is to get a cup winner every year. The playoffs is not the goal. The problem is that the coach, the scouts and the GM don't always have the same view of the team needs. The GM is trying to set up a 3 year contender to win the cup. The coach only looked at the current year. The pro scouts may not have a good idea of what works or it may differ from how the coach sees the holes. The Flames are a leaky boat. We add a top 6 C and a top 6 LW, and lose 2 top 6 wingers. We add a top 2 D and lose a top 4 D to personal time. We get under average goaltending the same time we lose scoring and PP efficiency. We get scoring from the bottom pair D and lose it from the top 2 D.

Phillips is a different conversation. It's not a situation of losing him for nothing and him succeeding elsewhere aas much as not using a player on a team starved of scoring when they had the chance. The comp you refer to is signing Phillips to a 1 way NHL deal and giving him a top 6 spot without even seeing him play a single NHL game. There are many things to be said about Love. It's obvious he is a good coach. He may get interest elsewhere. If he is the next best choice for a new coach, then talk to him and see if he is willing to be a A/coach in the NHL first, in case they hire someone else. If he is the best choice, then hire him.

Fair. I think there is something to be said about all of the returning players. We saw players that came off career years to have meh seasons. And players that had career years this past season. There is some disconnect where only some did well. Yes, I think coaching set up this situation. He alienated some and pushed others.

You have seen my rants about Sutter no doubt. I don't agree with everything people say, but I will post my opinion about it. Up to a point. At some point it's best just to walk away.