travel_dude

I think it was a mistake to trade Hall and Eberle. Need a number 1D, but trade for a 3/4 that provided little offence. Need to shed cap, but take on a bad player that allows you to overpay on Russel. Overpay for Lucic. Have one good goalie and overplay him. Pick the consensus #3 because you don't know how to scout anyone else. Trade away good D that bring you back another pick to waste. Trade picks for a D-man that can;t even make the NYI team. I get PO'd when our GM's have made questionable calls, but at least we have not overpaid anyone important. Gio and Mony = McDavid. JOhnny and Bennett = Draisaitl We get 4 players for the price of 2. One has not earned a raise yet, but the others are tops on our team.

Looch's agent denied that his player has even asked or been asked about a trade. Considering that he has a NMC, there's no point on talking trades without his agreement. The Oil have 10m in cap as of today with 10F, 5D and 3G signed. Strome and Nurse have been qualified. Strome will get at least $3m per year on his next deal. Nurse will want more than 2 on a bridge deal or 4+ on a longer term deal. Suspect he holds out for a long term deal. Leaves them less than 5m to fill up on 2-3 forwards and 1D. And yet they seem to be talking to every free agent.

Again, what does that approval consist of? Not all voters pay property tax. How do you get the okay? Can't compare it to a private company. Maybe the equivalent would be to ask season ticket holders, since they are the ones that mostly pay the bill. As soon as you start putting details of a deal in the media, you get a media circus. If the city can't negotiate a deal with a sports team, how do you expect them to negotiate with mega companies for tax breaks and concessions. How about the IOC? In case you forget the proposal, here's a link. I make no comment on their version of the facts, but leave it to you. https://www.nhl.com/flames/fans/arena

How do you think the bolded could ever work? A deal is negotiated, in other words offer and acceptance. Can't really kill the deal then. How would you have input on the deal? A "yes or no" plebiscite? That would probably cost $20m to do.

You voted the council in. The city hires people experienced in negotiation of major contracts. The negotiations can't be made public during. The final results are. Did you vote on the other major projects? Have your say on the library deal? Not trying to be insulting, but if you want to be heard or have your opinion know, call your council office. Go to a council meeting.

Nerves of steel Rittich? Mr Calm? Never looked rattled until he started handling the puck more. The D were used to him just leaving the puck.

Rittich changed the way he was handling the puck. He would just drop it and skate back to the net. Then he decided to start playing it. Then he was miscommunicating with the D or being out of position and being scored on. Coach or Smith?

At this point I would agree with the ranking. Gillies "should" be the more likely to emerge, but his injury/surgery year messed him up. Rittich took too many pointers from the goalie coach/Smith about playing the puck, and it changed his game for the worse. There were other things that happened, but he started making mistakes before he got the starter net. Gillies is wildly inconsistent right now. Big swings in the same game. Maybe the best thing this season is to run with Smith and Mrazek (assuming you can get him on the cheap) or somebody similar. Then you bring up the backup from the guys battling in the AHL for Smith ineveitable injury, or the trade at TDL that likely has to happen with a pending UFA facing a 35+ contract. We have to solidy the spot, whether an outsider is the solution or one of the guys we already have.

I get the need to keep drafting goalies, but 4th found we need to add to the forward crop. Probably losing a few to FA this summer and (hopefully) one or two to the Flames. Goalies are still available in the 7th right? Or the ones outside the draft. Hutton is UFA. Khudobin is UFA. Hutchinson is UFA. Of the 3, Hutton has been better. STL may be moving on from him, and saving the money for a big fish. He would be an insurance policy for the Flames. Allows them to bring in Rittich or Gillies according to their timetable, not the best before date of Smith.

I've heard that the WASH media says the GM is expecting to have to trade Grubauer. Same old story, since the player is ready for a starting role on a team with a gifted starter. I don't see that many teams looking for a starter, but probably at least 3. Interesting to see what teams offer.

Some great discussion. What were we talking about? Oh, right goalies. Does anyone think we will be in on one this summer, like every other year? As good as our D looks on paper, and how they played for parts of some/most games, we still need to be concerned about nets. Build from the net out. We seem to try to do that and come up short on the G side. The defense is fine, even without Brodie and Stone. We can survive that part. We can;t have another season of up and down goaltending. Great Smith. MVP. Ok to bad Smith. Injured Smith. Terrible Smith. It's like watching Elliott struggle here and in Philly. Was STL the only place he could play? Are we setting ourselves up for another letdown this year with Smith, if we do nothing else?

I expect Brodie to be dealt. But all I was saying is make decisions based on fact not bias.

I'm sure we will regret the loss of the 1st rounder. It is what it is. I don't really care. I like Hammer in our top 4, just didn't like the results with Brodie, who everyone seems to agree was less than stellar this season. Maybe try matching the D based on best fit, not handedness. Look at all the results (EV, PK, PP) and see what you can draw from that. Not you Conumdrumed, but BP. Maybe Valimaki or Kylington is exactly the kind of player to match him with. Or maybe it's Gio or Kulak or Andersson.

Sigalet is the normal "good guy" story here. Hasn't really been good or bad, just works at his job. The GM may also feel that he hasn't had the talent to work with. Maybe true, but what good is he if he can;t raise a prospect to at least a decent backup. I agree with your assessment of Smith. He was a surprise, then no surprise, then a brutal surprise. Overall, he was typical of Flames goaltending since Kipper. Honestly, I don;t know the answer to the starter question. Or at least I don't know there is anything that BT is willing to do to solve it. Would Grubauser or Saros be an upgarde over Smith this year? Maybe not right away, but that's not the crucial thing is it. The crucial thing is having a goalie that can become the next starter. He has to have more leeway than Elliott did the first (only) year. If that means you trade Smith now and take the risk, so be it. Perhaps you take less risk and use a combo with Smith until the TDL. Any way you look at it, Smith is a ticking time bomb. He could be great for another half season and tail off when you need him. He could be bad right from day 1. Rittich and Gillies may not be able to handle more than a backup role this season; as in less than 25 games. If BT doesn't do a serious amount of looking, then there's a good chance he's going to have another lotto team.

The "council" looks at revenue. If the building is city owned, no revenue through tax. If it's condos and businesses, they pay tax. If the Flames owned the building, they would need to pay some tax. Maybe less than par, but still tax. Long term, they might have been better off, since the area will remain as it is until someone starts the process.

How long do they continue to discuss where the site will be. I don;t know how long. Maybe they would be in construction phase by now. I just find it odd that the area is such a surprise. Turn your back and you think it will go away? Seems to be some ulterior motive for not wanting it there. It's a non-starter? Somebody is going to get rich.

It's nice to hear some positives. We have issues, but nowhere near some other teams. Our problem lie with having a few holes, some useless players clogging up the roster, and lack of RHS forwards. Our PP was brutal at times and we left points on the table. Hope that gets fixed because we weren;t that far from a playoff spot. If anything, we have too much depth on D, and not enough high end forward prospects. My concern will always be in nets first. I was concerned about Smith from day 1, but got proved wrong. For part of the season. Good teams have good starters. We have a small window of a good starter. We don;t have the proven backup yet. I thought Rittich was gold. But he was underused when you could use him safely. He folded once he was forced into the starter role. Gillies was shaky for 1/2 of each game he played. He would let a squeaker or two, then shut the door. Very much an Elliott effect. Neither is proven to be the bonafide backup able to play 30+ games this season. Proven, that is. Here's the conundrum. Both coach and GM need to achieve results. Another lotto pick will not look good. The only way to know for sure that Gillies or Rittich are potential Smith replacements is to subject them to 40 games this year. Have to be ready to give them lots of rope. The other possibility is to trade Smith this year and bring in a younger starter/ready to be a starter. In either case, we should have the defense to allow that. We should be able to limit the shots. We should be able to limit the HD shots.

Saving space on quoting you.... I really begin to wonder what the agenda is for Nenshi and crew. The West Village is out as a possible location, but was it the creosote or the use of prime land? The cost is a good excuse for not doing anything, but you have to wonder. Didn't I read (during the opening volley) that the West Village development was for condos and other high-density development? One would have to wonder if that is hidden away in some development plan that will make people rich in the future, perhaps once Nenshi retires from the council. At that time, the developer can apply for Fed and other funding to offset the cleanup costs. On another note, does the council expect a NHL team to build and own the arena, ahem, event center? Why would anyone take on that? You own it, you pay tax on it.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.... We have three potential starters in the wings but we are stuck with Smith, good or bad. Last year should have been a development year for Rittich (or Gillies). Instead we got an overplayed goalie that gets injured. Now what? If we were going to get more of a 1a/1b setup with Smith and the backup, I wouldn't have as much an issue. Or maybe you trade for a Grubauer/Saros now and trade Smith at the deadline. Give up assets, but at least it's for a younger guy. It gives you some additional time to develop Parsons and decide on Rittich or Gillies.

Adam Ollas-Mattsson will not be offered a contract by tomorrow, so he a free agent. I was hoping he would turn into a better player, but it never happened. Seems like after his appearance at the WJC he was never the same.

As far as I know, he is one vote on any council motion. He does not have special powers.

I think the biggest sticking point was ownership of the Dome. You own it, you pay land taxes.

Nenshi also stated that the West Village was OFF the table. That was today. Need to get that fool away as much as possible. It's not his city to control, just preside over the councilors.

Well Fleury only played 46 games this season, so it may not have been much better here. JK. The ask for MAF was 6th overall. I think the Flames were still thinking they could move up and get Tkachuk or better. Wonder what Smith would have been like in Vegas.

Well there's that possibility as well. I would say that a player that could play on the top line would be the best fit. They could start on the 3rd line and solve that problem. Why I suggest that they have the ability to jump up is because Ferland struggled for part of the season, not just when Monahan went cold. Sure they could go for a player like Derek Ryan, but that doesn't really do anything but replace a Hathaway or other. I would prefer a C/RW to give us different looks. Peters knows two players that could be a fit. If he thinks they could, he might make that suggestion to BT. One is a FA, while the other may be available for the right price.