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Calgary Flames Official Thread

UrbanRED said:
I honestly think the Flames should blow it up, it's painful but this upcoming draft is sooooo good. Bedard is supposed to be as good as McDavid, but even the next several guys are supposed to be insanely good. If we ship out a lot of players we could get so many picks and be set up for contention really well in a few years
Click to expand...
They would be crazy to blow it up, it takes years to build a team! Johnny was one guy, our best for sure, but one guy. The rest of the team still has pretty good depth, we just need someone to step up to the top line. Toffoli is the obvious choice, we had Tkachuck on right wing with a left handed shot, get Toffoli on the right side with Tkachuck back on the left. The thing I want to know is whether Monahan is done or not, we need depth down the middle so maybe that's where Kadri comes in...
 
I agree; the Flames have most of what a team needs to make deep playoff runs, even without their best player. A (usually) solid goalie, 2/3 of a great top line, and good strength into the middle of the lineup. We've lost one piece, but still have half a dozen other pieces...
From Dom at The Athletic circa March -- gold is where a player exceeds that position on typical Stanley Cup teams; black is in range of typical Cup winners; grey is a little below typical; pink is a hole in the lineup.
1657741960499.png


And versus the top half of the league:
1657741880585.png
 
ByeByeBaby said:
I agree; the Flames have most of what a team needs to make deep playoff runs, even without their best player. A (usually) solid goalie, 2/3 of a great top line, and good strength into the middle of the lineup. We've lost one piece, but still have half a dozen other pieces...
From Dom at The Athletic circa March -- gold is where a player exceeds that position on typical Stanley Cup teams; black is in range of typical Cup winners; grey is a little below typical; pink is a hole in the lineup.
View attachment 413591

And versus the top half of the league:
View attachment 413590
Click to expand...
I wouldn't put too much stock in Dom's numbers given that we just got beat badly by Edmonton and they have a bunch of red xs
 
Yes, but things like 'no elite winger' when Evander Kane put up the most goals in the playoffs is really questionable analysis.

We just lost our best player and we're not going to be a top 5 team anymore, championship teams aren't built by living in mediocrity every year. Usually you need a few guys who are picked very high, just look at the conference finalists this year:
Tampa - Stamkos #1 overall, Hedman #2 overall
NYR - Lafreniere #1 overall, Kakko #2 overall, and a lot of their star players were selected high just not by them, e.g. Zibanejad at #6 overall, Ryan Strome at #5 overall (and we aren't New York, we don't get free agents wanting to sign here like them - just look at Adam Fox)
Colorado - Byram #4 overall, Makar #4 overall, Rantanen #10 overall, MacKinnon #1 overall, Landeskog #2 overall
Edmonton - McDavid #1 overall, Draisaitl #3 overall, Nugent-Hopkins #1 overall, Nurse #7 overall

If we want to keep picking at #10-#20 for the next 10 years and miss out on all the amazing draft talent then we can, but don't expect to really win many cups that way

Also, Bedard is literally the next McDavid so if we want the next human cheat code now is the time to tank
 
UrbanRED said:
Yes, but things like 'no elite winger' when Evander Kane put up the most goals in the playoffs is really questionable analysis.

We just lost our best player and we're not going to be a top 5 team anymore, championship teams aren't built by living in mediocrity every year. Usually you need a few guys who are picked very high, just look at the conference finalists this year:
Tampa - Stamkos #1 overall, Hedman #2 overall
NYR - Lafreniere #1 overall, Kakko #2 overall, and a lot of their star players were selected high just not by them, e.g. Zibanejad at #6 overall, Ryan Strome at #5 overall (and we aren't New York, we don't get free agents wanting to sign here like them - just look at Adam Fox)
Colorado - Byram #4 overall, Makar #4 overall, Rantanen #10 overall, MacKinnon #1 overall, Landeskog #2 overall
Edmonton - McDavid #1 overall, Draisaitl #3 overall, Nugent-Hopkins #1 overall, Nurse #7 overall

If we want to keep picking at #10-#20 for the next 10 years and miss out on all the amazing draft talent then we can, but don't expect to really win many cups that way

Also, Bedard is literally the next McDavid so if we want the next human cheat code now is the time to tank
Click to expand...

Certainly drafting a few high players always works out well and is a guarantee of success -- you forgot #1 Yakupov by the way for the Oilers, who have had nothing but success with their human cheat code.
Buffalo - Eichel #2, Reinhart #2, Dahlin #1
Columbus - Murray #2 Johansen #4 Dubois #3

Fortunately, I'm certain no one else in the world has noticed that Bedard is a good player, so if the Flames tanked by trading away 5 to 8 of their best players there wouldn't be anybody else who could possibly also be tanking, certainly not Arizona or Chicago, or..., all competing for the same slightly higher odds in the random lottery draw. If the Flames were going to tank, they should have started two seasons ago; we're closer to the top than the bottom, and it's harder to get to the top. There's been a lot of seasons the Flames have run back a mediocre team and gotten mediocre results; last year is not one of them, even if they lost 1/3 of their season-end All Stars.
 
Johnny's reasoning for wanting out of Calgary doesn't really answer any questions, my guess is his wife didn't want to live in and raise a child in Canada. Dude will get a standing ovation when they do a tribute for him, then get booed every time he touches the puck and will probably cry lol.
 
As much as it sucks to lose Gaudreau, I don't think it's time to blow things up just yet. Gaudreau who's 30 years old would have been a huge salary cap hit for quite a few years. I would have liked to see them sign him, but there is a silver lining in the cloud, and it's the money they will have freed up, not just next year, but over the next 7-8 years. The still have a good core of players, and will now have some room to make some moves.
 
The future of the team now lies solely in Tkachuck's hands. I think the Flames need to make him captain and give him the same offer they made to Johnny. With the lineup we have I'd say we are still a playoff team, losing Johnny and Gudbranson means we aren't a contender anymore, but with a couple moves by Treliving we could get back there.
 
Flames elected to go to Salary Arbitration with Tkachuck after he declined. This is smart as no team can send him an offer sheet. The $9M qualifying offer is off the table now though, they will need to match or exceed it. I predict they offer him what Johnny turned down. Really hope we can re-sign him so we don't lose him to free agency next year, or trade him before then.
 
Tkachuck doesn't want to sign, that's why the team did the salary arbitration. If a team sent an offer sheet and we matched it, then we couldn't trade Tkachuck for a year and we would be in the same position we were with Johnny last week. If we didn't match, then we would get a bundle of picks. BT better be able to make some moves, but I doubt he will be able to add 200+ points to replace these 2 guys. Also no news on Monahan, but I'm guessing his career is winding down due to injury troubles. Shitty that we might go from a legitimate contender to a rebuild.

American players don't want to play here and this is a warning for all Canadian Franchises.
 
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