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Unsportsmanlike Conduct, Flames Edition |
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I've been meaning to write this blog for a while now. As you know, "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" is my weekly look at the NHL. Occasionally when there is nothing much exciting happening in the league, I'm going to focus a team instead random general comments. Today, my focus is the Calgary Flames.
A few things to point out before I get into this: First, being the Oilers blogger, I already realize how some people are going to react to this blog. I'm going to be called a hater, a troll, a trouble-maker, and some are going to say I'm just writing this to get a reaction. Reactions to blogs are great, but believe it or not, I am not doing this to upset a bunch of people who happen to cheer for Oiler fans least favorite team. The reason I am writing this blog is because I get bored writing just about the Oilers all the time, and the Flames are perhaps one of the most interesting stories in the NHL this season. I'm going to try and be as fair and objective as possible with this.
I feel Calgary's pain right now. Even though I'm suppose to hate them and rip them at every opportunity, I feel for their fan base because I can relate. We all remember the Oilers great cup run in 2006, and just how awful it felt to watch the Oilers the next season. When the Oilers missed their sixth cup win by one game, fans took comfort in defeat believing what they witnessed was the next great dynasty in the making. What happened instead was several years of ugliness. Players demanding trades, players not performing to potential, no one wanting to come here, deals falling apart, and injuries. By the end of 2008/2009, Oilers fans started to realize a full and complete rebuild was required. The ugly reality in that is, a "full and complete" rebuild requires numerous seasons of last-place hockey, time, and patience. It's so hard for fans to be patient when they are shelling out thousands of dollars for bad hockey and a bucket full of promises from team management.
When Flames GM Jay Feaster opened his mouth before the season and beaked the Oilers for the way they've approached the rebuild, the real pain from the incident was knowing just how wrong he was. Excellent young players don't just fall from the sky. Sure, sometimes you get lucky at the draft and find a gem in a middle round. But most of the time, the "stars" that come from the draft are gone by pick #6. With the league having so much parity, big trades hardly ever occur anymore.
Watching the Flames in 2011/2012 is like watching the Oilers in 2006/2007. In theory, the Flames have a solid veteran roster containing established stars and well regarded players. The team appears to have depth. They have players who have won in the past, or are players we know are capable of winning. Yet going into the season, most of us recognized and realized the ugly truth about the Flames: This season was the beginning of a slow, painful string of seasons with there being absolutely no hope of a playoff appearance unless massive changes were made to the roster. Complicating matters further is Flames management's strange addiction to offering long-term contracts with no-trade clauses to mid-range players.
The Flames organization has very little prospect depth, and their current group of younger players have yet to show that they can, some day, take over from the veterans. The veterans who are there seem to lack desperation about changing the direction of the team. If you ask me, things couldn't possibly be worse for the organization right now.
Flames GM Jay Feaster doesn't have to do something. He can maintain his current roster with the hopes that things will turn around. I can't see it happening, but I'm wrong about stuff all the time. Maybe all that is needed with the Flames is patience. There were stretches last season when the Flames did look like a pretty good team.
But now is not the time to hold on to hope. If I were Feaster, I'd eat my words, swallow my pride, and admit the situation in Calgary requires drastic measures. Actually, it requires more than a drastic response. What is needed first before anything else is a plan. It's so completely obvious right now in Calgary that the Flames have no plan. They've put together a roster of random players, but success in hockey requires more than that. There needs to be a coordinated effort, timelines, and identifiable performance targets.
They have assets that can be moved for quality prospects. There are rumors circulating that Jarome Iginla, while he hasn't asked for a trade, has indicated he's open to moving. One rumor suggests he's even provided a list of teams he'd willingly go to. What's Iggy's trade value? If I'm Feaster, I'm asking for two quality prospects and a 1st round draft pick. I don't know what teams would be interested in Iginla, but I'll use the Oilers as an example just do demonstrate what the Flames could get for him. From Edmonton, I'm asking for Sam Gagner, Jeff Petry and their 1st round pick in 2012. Plenty of teams would be interested in Iginla, and I'm certain a few of them could be found on his list of desirable locations.
I have a deal all worked out for Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff: What is the worst thing about the Columbus Blue Jackets? The goaltending. The Jackets are desperate to win this season, and Kipper would bring immediate help. Columbus has almost no cap room, so the Flames would have to take a salary back to make this work. So let's move Kiprusoff to the Jackets for Derick Brassard (who needs a change of address anyway) and Steve Mason. If Mason can eventually turn his game around, the Flames win this deal 150 times over. Keep in mind how old Kipper is and how much that lowers his value in a trade. Brassard is having a nightmare of a season, but he's had a 47 point season in the past and he's only 24.
The Flames have plenty of players who are untradeable due to horrible contracts. Alex Tanguay is an example, as is Jay Bouwmeester and Matt Stajan. Olli Jokinen is a clown, but he's a clown in the final season of his contract. If a different team dealt for him, they'd be stupid. Like it or not, the Flames are going to need to eat these contracts over time.
Cory Sarich is an example of a reasonable asset that can be moved for a real return. He's a big defenseman in the last year of his deal, which makes him a quality pick-up for a team making a cup run. Perhaps you can turn Sarich into a third round pick at the trade deadline. I suggest Rene Bourque, Mark Giordano, Anton Babchuk and Curtis Glencross are players who could be moved for numerous prospects, but there is a reason they'd bring a return. They might be the four best players on the team outside of Iginla. If the Flames can find enough quality prospects by the end of this season, there is hope they could be a playoff team again in three or four seasons. There could be an argument to keep these four around for that.
The real difficulty in all of this if you're a Flames fan is accepting that they don't have many quality prospects now, nor does the team have the assets needed to pull off many deals that would bring in quality. It could be a strategy to look to free agency to fill roster holes each season, but perhaps a better long-term strategy would be to lose now so the process of acquiring high-end prospects can begin immediately. Even if the Flames moved Kipper and Iggy, they won't finish last in the NHL, so they likely won't win the Nail Yakupov sweepstakes. Good news is, they could end up with a Ryan Murray, a Matthew Dumba or a Alex Galchenyuk. Prospects like that bring hope to a team that has none right now.
I will end this blog by going back to the comment that the Flames need a plan. What that means in real and immediate terms is to look at the younger players on the team and the current prospects, and to decide what sorts of prospects should be pursued when dealing off players like Iggy and Kipper. The Flames appear to have a few better forward prospects than defensive ones, but I don't follow the team that close so I could be mistaken. 2012 will be the Defenseman Draft, so the Flames can focus on picking up a top prospect there. Maybe if Iginla is moved, the goal is to acquire a quality young center? That's why we make a plan, friends. Figure out what the long-term needs are, and come up with a strategy as to how to acquire the missing pieces. That approach appears to be working in Edmonton this season, so there's no reason why it couldn't work for Calgary in the future.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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