Speculation: Armchair GM 2023-24 Season. If we can't say "Rebuild" what do we call it?

[crackdown44]

That would be my target as well. Shouldn't have to commit for much term and can probably afford to give him a little raise on the AAV. Need some snarly veteran presence on the backend.

Dillon is a good shout, the good thing about retooling is they can absolutely afford to give more money to a Tanev or a Dillon as long as the term isn’t outrageous. They aren’t going to need that cap space any time soon

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Sign Kylington 4x4 ish

Other than that, let this team cycle in young players. We don’t need more vets. We need young players to get considerable games. We actually need to see change

If they trade Rasmus for young assets like Buffalo’s first and Kulich and signs Montour that makes some sense.
Trade Markstrom for NJs first. These are the kind of moves we need to make at this point. Pick Catton (8 with our pick) trade up to get Yakenchuk and Iginla (10 and11) and pick Mews/Connelly/Chenyshov/Howe/Hage with Van’s pick.

This team needs surgery not band-aids.

 

[Yepthatsme]

With that report coming out, think it’s a guarantee that we chase a top 4 defenseman, even if we probably won’t go big name hunting only chasing a 2-3 year deal. Makes a lot of sense, Poirier, Brzustewicz, and Morin definitely won’t be ready next season, and I think ideally neither of Kylington or Miromanov are on the same pair or on the top pair.

If Calgary also wants Sharangovich at centre long term, I hope we take a serious run at Duclair this offseason. He looks rejuvenated in Tampa, and it’s rare you can sign a player you already know works very well with one of your players.

Huberdeau-Rango-Duclair
Zary-Kadri-Coronato
Pelletier-Backlund-Coleman
Mangiapane-Pospisil-Kuzmenko

Starts off entirely too overloaded at the forward position, but gives us a lot flexibility if any of our young guys aren’t ready or to make decisions on our UFA forwards in Mang, Rango, and Kuz. Personally I’m hoping to bring back Rango and sell off Kuzmenko and Mangiapane as people could probably see from my lineup.

Calling it now, a top 4 defenseman, depth defenseman, and an impact forward are on our goals this offseason.

 

[Lunatik]

With that report coming out, think it’s a guarantee that we chase a top 4 defenseman, even if we probably won’t go big name hunting only chasing a 2-3 year deal.

Connie will be looking for the 2024 version of Deryk Engelland.

 

[crackdown44]

I don’t really have interest in Duclair. Just retain Mangiapane if you feel like you don’t have enough on the wings. Pelletier, Zary, Coronato and Pospisil should all be in the top 9 next year

 

[Mobiandi]

Duclair’s someone you sign when everyone else is off the board.

It would have been interesting to audition him with Huberdeau at this deadline but an early July bidding war for him shouldn’t even cross Conroy’s mind. It’s a bit concerning how he is consistently the odd one out after touring through the worst organizations in the league

 

[User1996]

I’ll be seriously disappointed if Zary doesn’t at least get a look at C the rest of this year. For a team that has no C prospects, and only aging natural C’s on the roster, it seems like a no brainer. Which likely means it won’t happen.

 

[Yepthatsme]

Connie will be looking for the 2024 version of Deryk Engelland.

Honestly would love an Engelland-esque addition to our bottom pair as well. A defense with snarl who can fight would be a huge addition. We are currently a bottom 5 team in average weight in the league. Considering Conroy discussed they were trying to fix that in the draft, I’d bet a lot it’s going to be a focus in team building as well.

I don’t really have interest in Duclair. Just retain Mangiapane if you feel like you don’t have enough on the wings. Pelletier, Zary, Coronato and Pospisil should all be in the top 9 next year

Duclair adds goal scoring and more importantly offense that Mangiapane frankly just doesn’t. Mangiapane has only been successful flanking Backlund and Coleman which is the cushiest position on the roster, and frankly one that Pelletier is tailor made for and could improve in the same role. Pospisil is also on pace for 28 points over 82 games playing with two players finding plenty of offensive success, I love the elements he brings but that is not top 9 offense and considering his output at every stage along the way it’s unreasonable to think he has much room to grow passed that. I’d be excited to see what he would add to our 4th line that completely lacks an identity.

This team has plenty of room for Duclair, especially with the further trades we will be making to ensure additional players don’t have the chance to walk in Kuzmenko, Mangiapane, and potentially Rango.

I’ll be seriously disappointed if Zary doesn’t at least get a look at C the rest of this year. For a team that has no C prospects, and only aging natural C’s on the roster, it seems like a no brainer. Which likely means it won’t happen.

Zary is a rookie learning this league, let him focus on not getting sheltered winger minutes before we saddle him with centre responsibilities. I’d be fine with another season on the wing on a line that’s more thrown to the wolves before considering a centre move, especially considering the position swap would necessitate a decreased role for him when he’s fighting with Kadri, Backlund, and probably Rango as well for ice time.

 

[User1996]

Zary is a rookie learning this league, let him focus on not getting sheltered winger minutes before we saddle him with centre responsibilities. I’d be fine with another season on the wing on a line that’s more thrown to the wolves before considering a centre move, especially considering the position swap would necessitate a decreased role for him when he’s fighting with Kadri, Backlund, and probably Rango as well for ice time.

Another year? Let the guy learn to play C in this league as a C, making C mistakes. Why waste another year teaching him to play the wing? Unless that’s the long term plan?

Or we could just complain we have no C’s while another young guy doesn’t learn to be effective in his natural position at the NHL (Bennett I’m looking at you).

 

[Mobiandi]

Mangiapane is on pace for his second-most productive season which would coincendentally be Duclair’s as well. This, from a line that made Jonathan Huberdeau nearly go pointless in the month of December.

Most of this fanbase has lost their marbles when it comes to evaluating Mangiapane because he hasn’t hit 30 goals again despite playing through a shoulder injury all of last year and rehabbing for most of the summer.

 

[FLAMESFAN]

We do not need Duclair, lol

We better not be using our cap space to aquire FA vets that will help us finish in the same place next year. Hopefully we're able to take another teams overpaid player and get picks for that.
If we could pull a Montreal job, I would be doing backflips.

 

[Yepthatsme]

Another year? Let the guy learn to play C in this league as a C, making C mistakes. Why waste another year teaching him to play the wing? Unless that’s the long term plan?

Or we could just complain we have no C’s while another young guy doesn’t learn to be effective in his natural position at the NHL (Bennett I’m looking at you).

Counterpoint: Why waste a year of development having an offensive driver playing bottom 6 minutes so he can play centre? Or why waste a year of development on him learning who’s to be a centre AND learn how to play in the NHL. It’s not a crazy idea to let him learn how to be a top 6 player in the NHL then start adding to the responsibilities. Your method is just as likely to stifle his offensive upside as much as him playing wing could stifle his potential as a centre.

Mangiapane is on pace for his second-most productive season which would coincendentally be Duclair’s as well. This, from a line that made Jonathan Huberdeau nearly go pointless in the month of December.

Most of this fanbase has lost their marbles when it comes to evaluating Mangiapane because he hasn’t hit 30 goals again despite playing through a shoulder injury all of last year and rehabbing for most of the summer.

I’ve defended Mangiapane pretty hard this year, but he’s also the absolute easiest player to replace internally and for cheaper. He excels at generating chances, goal scoring, and his chemistry with Backlund. His weaknesses are being a pretty poor playmaker, his play (especially defensively) worsening significantly away from Backlund, which hamstrings our roster flexibility considerably, and smaller things like puck protection and yes how snake bitten his goal scoring has been.

Right now our left side of Huberdeau, Zary, and Mangiapane is completely blocking Pelletier, Mangiapane provides the easiest role to replace given Pelletier was born to play on that line, and Mangiapane with or without retention provides good value back in a trade while providing cap space for other impovements

 

[crackdown44]

Honestly would love an Engelland-esque addition to our bottom pair as well. A defense with snarl who can fight would be a huge addition. We are currently a bottom 5 team in average weight in the league. Considering Conroy discussed they were trying to fix that in the draft, I’d bet a lot it’s going to be a focus in team building as well.

Duclair adds goal scoring and more importantly offense that Mangiapane frankly just doesn’t. Mangiapane has only been successful flanking Backlund and Coleman which is the cushiest position on the roster, and frankly one that Pelletier is tailor made for and could improve in the same role. Pospisil is also on pace for 28 points over 82 games playing with two players finding plenty of offensive success, I love the elements he brings but that is not top 9 offense and considering his output at every stage along the way it’s unreasonable to think he has much room to grow passed that. I’d be excited to see what he would add to our 4th line that completely lacks an identity.

This team has plenty of room for Duclair, especially with the further trades we will be making to ensure additional players don’t have the chance to walk in Kuzmenko, Mangiapane, and potentially Rango.

Zary is a rookie learning this league, let him focus on not getting sheltered winger minutes before we saddle him with centre responsibilities. I’d be fine with another season on the wing on a line that’s more thrown to the wolves before considering a centre move, especially considering the position swap would necessitate a decreased role for him when he’s fighting with Kadri, Backlund, and probably Rango as well for ice time.

Why do we need to pay a 30 year old free agent for a marginal increase in goal scoring at the expense of getting a young guy more minutes to develop

I don’t argue that this team needs to add at certain positions in FA so that guys aren’t in over their heads. But the wing just isn’t one of them

 

[Yepthatsme]

Why do we need to pay a 30 year old free agent for a marginal increase in goal scoring at the expense of getting a young guy more minutes to develop

I don’t argue that this team needs to add at certain positions in FA so that guys aren’t in over their heads. But the wing just isn’t one of them

Duclairs last 3 full seasons (excluding g the year he came back from a torn ACL):

20/21: 19 goal, 61 point pace
21/22: 34 goal, 64 point pace
ACL season
23/24: 27 goal, 46 point pace

Mangiapane:

21/22: 35 goals, 55 points
22/23: 17 goals 43 points
23/24: 16 goal, 47 points

So Duclairs highs are higher, his lows are higher (plus his lows have come from an ACL tear or playing for a sharks team that makes our offense look like the Harlem globetrotters), his and Huberdeau’s best seasons have come playing together, but he also gives us better roster flexibility. He also should be a much better powerplay threat than Mangiapane, and this teams goal in life should be to fix that. The main positive Mangiapane has over Duclair is mostly just health honestly.

Our team could definitely use an improvement to the wings, and it could be extremely easy to do. Pospisil is doing admirably in his role but ideally you want a lot more offense from a player playing with a centre looking to get high 60s/low 70s in points, and Kuzmenko and Mangiapane make a combined 11.3 million. We could afford a lot of improvements for replacing those 2.

 

[crackdown44]

Duclairs last 3 full seasons (excluding g the year he came back from a torn ACL):

20/21: 19 goal, 61 point pace
21/22: 34 goal, 64 point pace
ACL season
23/24: 27 goal, 46 point pace

Mangiapane:

21/22: 35 goals, 55 points
22/23: 17 goals 43 points
23/24: 16 goal, 47 points

So Duclairs highs are higher, his lows are higher (plus his lows have come from an ACL tear or playing for a sharks team that makes our offense look like the Harlem globetrotters), his and Huberdeau’s best seasons have come playing together, but he also gives us better roster flexibility. He also should be a much better powerplay threat than Mangiapane, and this teams goal in life should be to fix that. The main positive Mangiapane has over Duclair is mostly just health honestly.

Our team could definitely use an improvement to the wings, and it could be extremely easy to do. Pospisil is doing admirably in his role but ideally you want a lot more offense from a player playing with a centre looking to get high 60s/low 70s in points, and Kuzmenko and Mangiapane make a combined 11.3 million. We could afford a lot of improvements for replacing those 2.

I don’t disagree that Duclair is decent I just don’t see a reason to spend money on a 30 year old UFA who doesn’t fill a position of need who only makes the team moderately better when they aren’t going to be good anyway

 

[Yepthatsme]

I don’t disagree that Duclair is decent I just don’t see a reason to spend money on a 30 year old UFA who doesn’t fill a position of need who only makes the team moderately better when they aren’t going to be good anyway

…because the team themselves have expressed their interest in getting better? Like every step of the way they’ve echoed that this is the goal?

We have an extremely reasonable path to being better too. Defense will be moderately worse the next couple years, but we have the ability to significantly improve our forward core. Through Kuzmenko and Mangiapane trades, we could legitimately have about 20 million in cap we can invest into our forward core, while still adding a defense or 2.

Also you keep saying winger is not an area of concern, but it really is for the first time in a long time. Like hypothetically your life is on the line, which singer on our team are you betting hits 30 goals next year? You can’t answer that honestly and still say our wings are good.

 

[User1996]

Counterpoint: Why waste a year of development having an offensive driver playing bottom 6 minutes so he can play centre? Or why waste a year of development on him learning who’s to be a centre AND learn how to play in the NHL. It’s not a crazy idea to let him learn how to be a top 6 player in the NHL then start adding to the responsibilities. Your method is just as likely to stifle his offensive upside as much as him playing wing could stifle his potential as a centre.

I mean, going strictly by TOI he’s playing bottom 6 minutes as a winger (6 F’s above him in TOI). I know that’s hardly a perfect argument taking into consideration special teams play. If you think he can play C, 15 minutes as a C is infinitely more valuable than 15 on the wing.

Besides, Backlund playing 19 is not ideal at this stage in his career. You could easily shift a couple of those onto Zary.

 

[Yepthatsme]

I mean, going strictly by TOI he’s playing bottom 6 minutes as a winger (6 F’s above him in TOI). I know that’s hardly a perfect argument taking into consideration special teams play. If you think he can play C, 15 minutes as a C is infinitely more valuable than 15 on the wing.

Besides, Backlund playing 19 is not ideal at this stage in his career. You could easily shift a couple of those onto Zary.

He has hopped over the boards with our best offensive player all season. Him getting the rookie treatment and being stapled to the bench in key moments doesn’t disregard the fact he’s getting very offensive top 6 usage.

Minutes aren’t just number that get transferred and that’s it. At 5v5 Backund takes the vast majority high quality competition minutes. Zary would frankly get crushed taking some of that responsibility off Backlund. Zary currently has the highest offensive usage rate of any of our wingers with the lowest quality of completion out of everyone but our 4th line (according to Dobber). Why not let him develop his offense there, because his only spot he could slot in on this team in an offensive role would be between Huberdeau and Rango and that would be murderers row of matchups without much help defensively.

This will go over terribly, but he’s already a pretty big candidate for a sophomore slump next season. He has an 18.2 shooting percentage, and an on ice shooting percentage of 11.6%. He’s already gonna be battling to improve a lot to counteract it, let’s not add a huge increase in his responsibility to his plate just yet.

 

[FLAMESFAN]

WHL playoffs start next weekend and 1 series to keep an eye on would be Everette vs Vancouver

The Giants have Honzek & Lipinski and ofcourse we should have a scout to watch them. But Everette has Julius Miettinen, a 6'3 205 C that is slated to go around late 1st....which we have from Vancouver....

 

[Flames Fanatic]

I'm on board with letting our kids play. I'm not adverse to grabbing an Arvidsson or Duclair type if the price is right, but our wings are already pretty full. Zary, Pelts, Huberdeau, Kuzmenko, Mangi, Coronato, plus guys like Marty. I'd rather run with what we have and try to grab some depth elsewhere.

 

[scoringmachine]

I feel for Craig Conroy. He inherited a big mess in Calgary from Treliving. One goal I hope that Craig Conroy does that Treliving failed at was when trading a player try not to trade picks and prospects when not necessary . Treliving had the habit of trading a top player for a lesser player and end up giving up more than he was receiving. Example when they traded for Travis Hamonic for three picks and now Hamonic is a floater in the league.

Anyways it is March 25th and we have got to see Conroy Trade, Toffoli, Lindholm,, Tanev, and Hanifin. He got some good return for the trade and what would you expect him to do now.

I would like to see him do a few of these.

1. Keep Markstrom for next season
2. Trade Hubby retain 25% of his contract maybe if you can get a third team involved to help with the salary and maybe take a salary dump that you can trade
2. Keep Kadri and Coleman
4. Trade Vladar for picks/prospects
5. Go for a first liner
6. Get a backup goalie to push Wolf I know keep Valdar, but he is better right now than wolf. Maybe someone like an Aaron Dell could push Wolf as would seems to be better.

These are just my thought if you have something better just give be a shout not harrass me with negative comments.

Thanks.

 

[DFF]

No way to trade Huberdeau
Dude average 1M/goal. Is so soft and 1 dimensional. Even his goals were accidental passes.

 

[Backlund]

I feel for Craig Conroy. He inherited a big mess in Calgary from Treliving. One goal I hope that Craig Conroy does that Treliving failed at was when trading a player try not to trade picks and prospects when not necessary . Treliving had the habit of trading a top player for a lesser player and end up giving up more than he was receiving. Example when they traded for Travis Hamonic for three picks and now Hamonic is a floater in the league.

Anyways it is March 25th and we have got to see Conroy Trade, Toffoli, Lindholm,, Tanev, and Hanifin. He got some good return for the trade and what would you expect him to do now.

I would like to see him do a few of these.

1. Keep Markstrom for next season
2. Trade Hubby retain 25% of his contract maybe if you can get a third team involved to help with the salary and maybe take a salary dump that you can trade
2. Keep Kadri and Coleman
4. Trade Vladar for picks/prospects
5. Go for a first liner
6. Get a backup goalie to push Wolf I know keep Valdar, but he is better right now than wolf. Maybe someone like an Aaron Dell could push Wolf as would seems to be better.

These are just my thought if you have something better just give be a shout not harrass me with negative comments.

Thanks.

1. For what? We aren't going to be a playoff team if we keep him and other teams are willing to pay to get him.
2. Nobody is taking that dumbass contract they gave him. We're stuck with it for at least another 5 or so years.
3. If someone offers enough then you need to trade them. You can keep them to insulate the young players coming up but these two won't be a part of the team when they are finally competitive.
4. They seem to have already been trying that. He might have to be bought out if you need to get rid of him and can't find any takers.
5. Who? Free agents are unlikely to sign here and they haven't really accumulated the assets to trade for any. Not to mention it's way too early in the rebuild to trade for those type of roster players.
6. Wolf just needs a solid veteran who can take a majority of the starts if he struggles.


Honestly I don't have any faith in Conroy's ability to build a team. The next GM will probably be the one to make this team a contender.

 

[DFF]

Hopefully Conroy can draft and Honzek was just a one time f*** up

The draft is what going to define him,
not the mess that he inherited

 

[crackdown44]

Hopefully Conroy can draft and Honzek was just a one time f*** up

The draft is what going to define him,
not the mess that he inherited

Tbf I think a good GM is just the one that listens to his scouts at the draft. I don’t know if it’s mostly the same scouting staff now as it was when Treliving was here? But they seemed to always do pretty well