Quoting: PhatRas
He has been the best C. Tkachuk and Lindholm haven’t been good. Both can be true, the best Gaudreau looked was when Monahan was hurt and he got a shot with Lindholm. Flames RW is vomit inducing, you think back to the 2018 deadline when the Flames refused to move Valimaki for Stone, in hindsight, you’d hope they do it every time.
Valimaki has top 20 defense in the league potential. losing him for stone would not have been good. The area where things fell apart was the Neal signing which most people loved at the time but it has really panned out poorly for the flames. if we didnt have so much tied up in Lucic that money would be going to a capable top line RW.
Lindholm has been stellar defensively but the majority of his offense is coming from the PP. you can argue Lindholm is the flames best center right now but his line is pretty dysfunctional in the offensive end.
Telivings real issue is that he refused to trade draft picks to make this team better while their window to be competitive was open (about the last 3 seasons). what we are witnessing now is a team who is on the last few years of some very key deals before players start to get really expensive and they have no success to show for it.
Keeping gaudreau, monahan and Tkachuk with the salarys they are going to command is going to cripple this team so it seems we are at a crossroads yet again where a decision needs to be made on whether they go for broke and try to win this season or next or try to rebuild around the real core of this team which is now Tkachuk, Lindholm, Markstrom, Anderson, hanifin and Valimaki. This means trading gaudreau (too expensive for what he brings) trading monahan (not a true #1 centre and very 1 dimensional player) trading backlund (journey man flame who is simply past his prime) and trading giordano (journey man flame who is near retirement. Could keep gio if he wants to sign a vet's minimum contract.
The fans of this team have seen this decision looming for atleast the last 2 seasons with tons of calls to trade monahan and gaudreau. we just need a management who has the balls to make the decision and stick with it instead of stupidly claiming "We have the pieces" despite little to no roster change and repeated failure.
Incredibly frusturating time as we watch everything that was built up to be a successful team really not panning out at all. if none of the above happens I hope to god the owners have the guts to fire the management staff that has driven this once promising young team into a car crash of a future