Calgary is in the conversation. When you're sole adds in FA are Mantha and Lomberg you've basically given up and are focusing on some value at the deadline. Why not start the firesale? It's like they're playing poker and slowly losing all their chips, but refusing to sit out any hand before seeing the flop.
They should be trading Coleman and Backlund this offseason before their values drop. Andersson or Weegar will have good years so they can flip at least one next summer or even at the TDL.
Their adds were strategic because they only started their rebuild essentially midway through last year. Like in January there was still the thought around the organization that this was a wildcard team (because, well, they were sitting in the second wildcard spot for a while). 1-2 year contracts that are flip-able at the 2025 and 2026 deadlines.
After trading away Hanifin and Tanev, they went 8-13 down the stretch.
They also just moved on from Markstrom before the draft who probably won them, conservatively, 17 or 18 games on his own this year.
This is going to be year 1 of the rebuild.
Guys like Coleman and Backlund never lose their value as players because they've both proven they can produce and be A+ defensive players even on bad teams. Backlund's been doing it essentially his entire career.
Not sure how your analogy works?
We've traded:
Lindholm
Tanev
Hanifin
Markstrom
Zadorov
Toffoli
This calendar year. If that doesn't signal fire sale, not sure what does. We need to hit the cap floor.
Only if their goaltending completely craters. They won't be good, but they still have a better roster than the Sharks, and probably a few others.
Flames over/under 62.5 points this year?
Also a gentle reminder. Calgary has one of the worst coaches in the NHL. Ryan Huska is clearly a placeholder while we race to the bottom of the standings lol.