travel_dude

I was trying to be funny, but you know that Bettman would likely approve both of those moves. Expanding the NHL to Texas or one of the KC cities was of interest. The Flames could pull up stakes and move there, and get an arena for pennies. Bettman would also be okay to moving the Yotes to Calgary. Would be based on a arena deal being part of the move. The you would at least get to see Bedard.

The state of the roster sounds like Bean has already decided we have the right roster. Just under-performed. Already suggesting that Markstrom is coming back, even though they haven't done any evaluation on him or the defense.

So, Bean was on answering a question about lack of success and fans clamoring for a rebuild. His answers are somewhat disturbing. take a breath and not overreact or underreact talk to players and look at analytics before making player decisions We had a Venza goalie last year and look forward to seeing again next season Lacklustre start but finished incredible Weegar put it together after struggling out of the gate great lineup that under performed What do I take from that? A whole lotta the same.

How does the Kansas City Flames or Houston Shuttles sound to you? The we can get the Calgary Coyotes to make up for it.

Mike Futa?

1PM local time.

I'm not against change, just that this doesn't go far enough. A new GM, whomever that may be, is not a bad thing maybe. But that seems to imply that Sutter won and BT lost. That is the bad part of this story. However, I will say that a new GM may decide to entirely change the coaching staff.

^^^^^ Too many good points to agree with individually. Wolf in the NHL is a necessity I think. I wonder if Ottawa is interested, seeing as they are moving on from Talbot. That leaves us with a young crew in nets, but it's not like Vladar was any worse than Markstrom. He as liable to improve as Markstrom and less chance of injuries (IMHO). Although Mangiapane is still fairly young, I think he might be a player we may need to move on from. Maybe a bit too much like Dube to keep both. If we have too many of the same D, we perhaps should be moving Hanifin or Zadorov. I tend to like Zadorov a bit more, just because he I think he's not a finished product. Unlike Hanifin, I think he has room to grow. Hanifin has a bit higher trade value too, I believe. So, here some crazy trade ideas. Target Debrincat. There is some speculation that he may be on the outs in Ottawa. I'm not sure what the package going the other way would need to look like. Mangiapane and a minor prospect? Markstrom and a prospect? I like the player because I think he would be a great top 6 replacement on RW.

We had the Dougie trade, which was essentially a move of a disgruntled player and a pending UFA (Ferland). We ended up getting younger and a bit cheaper. Was for sure franchise altering. Should we end up trading Backlund, Lindholm and Hanifin, I think you see something similar. Package deal of Hanifin and Backlund, while Lindholm for a younger C. But honestly, if the coach is the reason to trade players, then we are backing the wrong horse. Not because we end up better, but because we are chasing away talent. Huberdeau and Kadri and Weegar aren't in a position to demand a trade, because they have just signed deals. They want to build up their value so they could have a choice of teams to go to. As a coach, Sutter probably got about as much as should be expected from the group he iced. He left areas of weakness out there. He put together lines that should struggle. He left goalies out there instead of pulling them or calling a time out. Took him half a season to understand that a LW should play LW. He put out a fighter to aid in possession far too long for any team. During losing streaks, he kept things the same. If he didn't like the way we won a game, he would make changes. The team has to change due to natural turnover and cap issues. Bringing back Lucic and Lewis is not really an option. You could say that they are known to what they bring, but with the same coach the same problems are there. You can't have guys out there with negative goals for/goals against differentials. It means too much is on the goalies and the team needing to score at least 2 more goals in a game. If all we do is more dumpster diving for players, then we find the same or worse. If the coach was open to a 4th line of speed over grit, then we might see something different. Still need a trade of Backlund or Hanifin or Mangiapane to survive.

Ya sure about that? It's still a possibility, isn't it? As far as the owners, if they determine a lot of the direction then they also can't dump failure on the GM. So, BT has had a long runway where he isn't really held accountable. If that is the case, then either a new GM is going to accept the limited decision making or they will promote from within because nobody will accept that. I think what Cross was referring to was a sign that the problem exists between owners, GM and coach. There is no immediate dismissal of GM or coach or both. No comments coming post garbage day. This smells like there is something major going on behind the scenes. If all they were going to do was run back the same, they would have come out with the obligitory post season presser. The players have already owned up (or not). The golf course tee times are booked.

So, that would make you one of the "keep it the same" crew. Ah yes, the Lucic domination on the ice, only when it comes to crunching someone and perhaps stealing the puck away. Or the couldn't hit the broad side of the barn Lewis. Yes, he brought intensity every game, but little else. Let's re-sign both of them for 1-2M. Essentially bring back the exact same team. I don't think it's called whining when you bring up a player, sit him for some time, then toss him into a couple of games at 8-9 minutes each game. Strangely enough, he hit the post on one his his few shots (that obviously didn't count). If you are suggesting that the only player that slipped was Pelletier, you are not seeing the entire game. Kadri, Huberdeau, Mange, Dube, Coleman, Lucic, Lewis all made equally low impact in games and stayed in. Look at the game summary to see how many goals against Lucic was on for. Or Mangiapane. Or how many weak penalties Coleman was called for. Make little change to the roster, re-sign Lucic and Lewis, and also will need to trade about $3M in salary just to break even. Actually closer to $5M. But hey, that Jack Adams coach knows best. Players that left after last year either bettered their season performance or went to an AHL level team and were back to mostly career average results. Seems like it wasn't the coach that got the best out of them.

I get the other part of your argument, but what does the GM and higher have to do with coaching or not coaching goalies? You bring in coaches because they are hiring decisions made either by the coach or without that, based on the record or reputation/results of the goalie coach. Once they are here, the head coach has the final say, not the GM. Much like Sutter can do what he wants, the goalie coach doesn't answer to the GM until the end of the year, or when they fire the lot. Nobody was telling Mike Smith how to play, but maybe Labarbara decided that something needed to change with Markstrom after the weak glove in the playoffs. I don't know. He was a good (perhaps) development coach for junior or U18 and U20's.

You didn't include your sarcasm imogi. So, with Sutter, there is zero chance that Phillips re-signs here. He may not be a NHL player (yet), but some team is going to give him a fair shake. AHL 2nd place scorer, just one back of a 32 year old career AHL player. With Sutter, we wasted the up time of both Ruzicka and Pelletier. Ruzicka may be the author of his own demise by not being the player Sutter wanted or playing every game like it was his last. But he was close to a p/gp player until he got dropped down the lineup. Pelletier made one mistake and paid the price the rest of the season. Duehr was forced to make the 4th line good. Had one shift with Kadri then got pushed down. He was as close to what Sutter wanted from all our prospects, though. Coronato is going to have the same issues with Sutter. Sutter will try to improve his defensive play, at the expense of offense. He will play less minutes than most NHL player, assuming he even gets a shot. If he doesn't have an exceptional camp, he is bound to be sent down. Maybe that's right or maybe you have a NHL ready player that just needs the reps. Wolf. Ah yes Wolf the best goalie not in the NHL. If Sutter is here, how does he even manage the 3rd goalie when he barely managed Vladar. Vladar was expected to be given more runway, but somehow MArkstrom was the only choice in the final 20 critical games. Barely 500 in the easiest stretch in the schedule. Did he look better? Sure, but compared to what? It's tough to make any change to this team with the current dynamics. The coach is set in who or what he believes wins games. The owners seem to put friendship over performance. The GM has to make moves based on who could play in this system and getting value for players that played in this system. And he has to take into account the owners that value life long Flames committment. At the same time you have a coach PO'ing the top players.

I alluded to it being a possible reason to falling off. I don't know that they would have as big an impact on the vet as much as the rookie. There are some inescapable facts. Markstrom played well in the Dallas series, then fell apart in the EDM one. Markstrom last season was way better than this season. This season there was a lot of "unstoppable goals" but many times at least one "wish he had it back". I hate to say it, but the unstoppable ones were saves by other goalies at times. Many "Markstrom unstoppable" goals. I saw a lot of far post shots from the circle. Or Markstrom playing too deep. I am concerned that our best current backup changed. His glove was getting beat a lot. His stance in the crease (deep and down) left some holes. I am also concerned that we bring in Wolf into the coaching that we have. There is no reason why we can't replace the goalie coach. There isn't some great success that we can lean on.

Bell assisted in the game winning goal in the season finale. Wranglers win the division and conference, and 1st place team in the league.

Gee, he played on LW with Lindholm for something like the first 6 games. Had 1 goal and 4 assists in 6 games. But, hey lets's move you to another line. Next 10 games, 2 goals and 2 assists. Out for 3 in that span of 13 games. Next 10 games 2 goals and 7 assists. It's hard to tell where the RW play started. Likely early December.

Some great perspectives in this thread. I feel that Sutter will be the ruination of this team if he stays. Not due to BT staying or leaving, just that he is only accepted by a few for the style we play. Zaddy likes it here, but I don't think he bothers much with the head coach. The forwards all (except Toffoli) seem frustrated. The team is half built. Most want to see changes, but I don't know what that means to them. The GM can only do so much. If Lindholm wants changes, some of it is coaching and some is having no finishers other than Toffoli. Backlund seems like it's time for him to go, regardless of Sutter. We can't afford him + Lindholm + Kadri long term. Make a decision on Mangiapane and Dube. We have too many wingers. If Dube can stick at C, and take on 3C, then fine. Ideally, you have Ruzicka take one of the C's. Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli ?-Kadri-? ?-Dube-Duehr Pelletier-Ruzicka-Coronato Weegar-Ras Kylington-Tanev Zadorov-? That leaves us trades with Backlund, Coleman, Mangiapane, Hanifin. When I look at other teams I see players signing bargains. Not here. Freddie Gaudreau signed 5 x $2.1M. The guy had 19g 19a this year. That's what you pay for that level of production.

I'm up and down on this thought. Some days I think we would be nuts to trade Vkladar while he is just starting out. The problem is that if we traded Markstrom and Vladar couldn't handle 40+ starts, we would be worse off. The same is true if trading Vladar and Markstrom sucks again. I think Vladar has the ability to bounce back with this team. He was great before coaching got their hands on him. What I mean is that he started off good and didn't really tail off as much as not get the starts when he needed them. Maybe they adjusted his style a bit. In a breakaway situation, Vladar was the guy I would think stops the puck. We could have 5-8 years out of him. Markstrom may only last 3.

Yeaaaa. Imagine what would happen if they revealed the 16th overall pick and it was NAS. But you know, that if an unlikely lotto picks happens, it's that spot we vacated with the win. That win moved us from 13th.

I feel that way too about Backlund's comments. If he was thinking of moving last year and is no more decided about staying this yea, then you need only look at the coach. If what you suggested was true, Kadri was not the reason he wanted to go. And at times you saw how uninspired he was out there, half efforts on shots etc.

It's rough to try to join a completed team. Unlike the 3 we sent down, he knows nobody and has played AHL hockey with none of the team. The guys that won deserve to play. For some that is their career.

He didn't elaborate, but the problem we saw a lot was the timeliness of the goal he let it. There are probably at least 5 examples of a goal that pushes us to OT. No way to say what a save does overall. Without looking it up there are some things that may have happened. Instead of the win streak ending at 2 or 3 with a loss, winning the next one then losing.... We have confidence after winning 4, so 5 is a win too.

I'm a little concerned about Lindholm and Backlund's comments. I don't think we can wait to sign them during the year, after the summer is figured out. Summer is when trades need to happen. By the sounds of it, the only signed guy that likes the coaches is Toffoli.

It's MODS that can't be liked. Just a function of the access we have. Ft. Mac is okay, but too small town for me, and totally centered around people working at the sites. I worked in the city, so never had to face that bad morning commute. Well the left turn from Timberlee. When I first got there I rented up in Abasand then moved to Timberlee. Abasand basically burned to the ground and the other place in Timberlee burned to about 500 metres from where I lived. I was long gone by then.