Speculation: Armchair GM Thread: There are no solutions, only problems

[Baxterman]

wait, you mean being a contender will have bumps along the road? No way, that can't be a thing

LOL

Are you trying to claim that the Flames are contenders and the play-off flame out and basically hanging around 7th-11th all season is just a bump in the road?

 

[JPeeper]

Difference between Flames and Nashville is they have a really good coach and we have Gulutzan. Last year in the playoffs Gully still rolls all the lines pretty much the same as the regular season, meaning the 4th line gets way too much ice-time and the bottom pairing (which last year was much much worse than last year) was getting steam rolled all 4 games.

Contrast that to Laviolette who barely played his bottom pairing. His bench management alone is so much better, when things got tough he was only rolling 4 guys with the 3rd pairing getting a shift every 7 or 8 minutes. Nashville also shows up to most games, where the Flames seemingly take games off. Nashville shuts teams down, Flames have done it sparingly.

Gio is better than Josi, Josi is the most overrated player in this league based on the stuff I see on HF. He's good, but he is no where near as good as people think. Look at the system Nashville d-men play and the system our d-men play; they are all pretty much the exact same type of players, yet their D gets to actually join the rush and engage in offence while ours our completely neutered by the "system". It's a joke. Our teams are fairly comparable and play completely different, it's stupid how our coaching staff, in 2 years, has barely adapted the system to fit our roster. We still get Gaudreau chipping and chasing the puck for God sake, one of the best possession guys in the league; never mind the fact he's 5'9" 160 lbs.

 

[CamPopplestone]

Our defense being great on paper doesn't matter when they've been average on ice for the last 5 years as a unit.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Difference between Flames and Nashville is they have a really good coach and we have Gulutzan. Last year in the playoffs Gully still rolls all the lines pretty much the same as the regular season, meaning the 4th line gets way too much ice-time and the bottom pairing (which last year was much much worse than last year) was getting steam rolled all 4 games.

Contrast that to Laviolette who barely played his bottom pairing. His bench management alone is so much better, when things got tough he was only rolling 4 guys with the 3rd pairing getting a shift every 7 or 8 minutes. Nashville also shows up to most games, where the Flames seemingly take games off. Nashville shuts teams down, Flames have done it sparingly.

Gio is better than Josi, Josi is the most overrated player in this league based on the stuff I see on HF. He's good, but he is no where near as good as people think. Look at the system Nashville d-men play and the system our d-men play; they are all pretty much the exact same type of players, yet their D gets to actually join the rush and engage in offence while ours our completely neutered by the "system". It's a joke. Our teams are fairly comparable and play completely different, it's stupid how our coaching staff, in 2 years, has barely adapted the system to fit our roster. We still get Gaudreau chipping and chasing the puck for God sake, one of the best possession guys in the league; never mind the fact he's 5'9" 160 lbs.

Nashville's defensive metrics are actually far worse than ours this season lol. Subban is arguably the best player on both squads, debatable who's better Giordano or Josi. Josi's offensive dynamics is insane, so you can't count him out 100%. I'd say Hamilton and Brodie are better than Ekholm and Ellis respectively, but not this season for Brodie. Our bottom pair is actually better than theirs, it's just Laviolette is far more intelligent on how he uses his matchups. Our bottom 6 however is way worse than Nashville's bottom 6.

 

[crackdown44]

I know that I wouldn’t trade this roster for any other roster in the division except for maybe Anaheim. If Brodie and Hamonic were consistently what they were supposed to be throughout the first 50 games and the PP was only slightly better than abysmal, I think we’re comfortably in 2nd in the division, maybe even toying with first

 

[Sparky93]

Just for fun, assuming the Sens and Canadiens both need a #1 center, what would those teams have to add to the Tkachuk pick to acquire Monahan. For instance, I’d think long and hard about Galchenyuk + Brady for Monahan. Curious to see what others fans would say.

 

[DFF]

If Brodie and Hamonic were consistently what they were supposed to be throughout the first 50 games

Not sure about Hamonic as he is new but 100% agreed on Brodie. If I have my choice, he is the player that I would trade.
He is soft , prone to brain farts and disappear half the time. He is not contributing much offensively now anyway.

Obviously I am not counting negative values guys like Stajan and Brouwer.

 

[Mobiandi]

Flames fans would miss Brodie dearly if we ever traded him. Very underappreciated player

 

[Anglesmith]

Flames fans would miss Brodie dearly if we ever traded him. Very underappreciated player

I think that's certainly true of defencemen a lot of the time. I always think back to when I was young and naive and happy to see Regehr get traded. I learned my lesson from that.

I feel like with all the Islanders fans who were ready to be done with Hamonic, they're learning a bit of a lesson through their 3.6 GA/GP, too.

 

[Johnny Hoxville]

You know who we need, Silvferberg. That’s who.

 

[crackdown44]

You know who we need, Silvferberg. That’s who.

Couldn’t agree more but try prying a youngish goal scoring winger from a divisional rival. Our biggest asset is D prospects and Anaheim is full of them too

 

[Calculon]

Some if not much of the criticism on Brodie seems to stem from him not being able to carry the sad sack corpse of Wideman last year. The same guy who went from being played as a top four defenceman for the first half of the season to not even being able to get any kind of contract from 31 NHL teams in the summer. Brodie seems to be a tough player to get use to for partners but that pairing has been pretty good for the last little while.

Regardless, would be absolutely moronic to trade him before seeing what a new, ideally better, coach can do.

 

[Sparky93]

We should trade every puck moving defenseman we have, for high end futures. Hopefully by the time the futures are ready to step in, these young forwards have learned how to back check, sometime even past our own blue line. Abandone this cherry picking, stretch pass BS, and leave the waaay too cute plays, that work 15% of the time but cost us a goal half the rest of the time back in junior. The team needs some balls, heart, two way commitment and a top 6 RW.

 

[crackdown44]

Some if not much of the criticism on Brodie seems to stem from him not being able to carry the sad sack corpse of Wideman last year. The same guy who went from being played as a top four defenceman for the first half of the season to not even being able to get any kind of contract from 31 NHL teams in the summer. Brodie seems to be a tough player to get use to for partners but that pairing has been pretty good for the last little while.

Regardless, would be absolutely moronic to trade him before seeing what a new, ideally better, coach can do.

I think he’s a good defensemen. I think part of the problem is that we’ve seen him be a top 10 D in the league. Hell, he almost made the canadian Olympic team. He’s only 27, it’s not an age thing. I just think a lot of people wish we had 2014 Brodie right now because it would make a huge difference

 

[lightstorm]

I think that's certainly true of defencemen a lot of the time. I always think back to when I was young and naive and happy to see Regehr get traded. I learned my lesson from that.

I feel like with all the Islanders fans who were ready to be done with Hamonic, they're learning a bit of a lesson through their 3.6 GA/GP, too.

What are they learning? That they are missing Boychuk and De Haan, who are miles better than Hamonic?

 

[DFF]

Some if not much of the criticism on Brodie seems to stem from him not being able to carry the sad sack corpse of Wideman last year.

That's not true at all.....He has been bad plenty of time without Wideman.

I am not saying he is totally useless but severely overrated as you can see from all these posts.

If they have to trade someone to improve , he is my top pick without a doubt

 

[Baxterman]

What are they learning? That they are missing Boychuk and De Haan, who are miles better than Hamonic?

?

Not a chance they are miles better (I wouldn't say either are even just plain better) but while the goalies are and easy target the Isles defense has been an absolute trainwreck this year and caused a lot of issues for the goalies.

 

[Baxterman]

Just for fun, assuming the Sens and Canadiens both need a #1 center, what would those teams have to add to the Tkachuk pick to acquire Monahan. For instance, I’d think long and hard about Galchenyuk + Brady for Monahan. Curious to see what others fans would say.

I think Brady Tkachuk is very overrated in general but wildly overrated by Flames fans especially because of the name on the back of his jersey.

Galchenyuk and Brady for Monahan is a terrible deal and has the potential to set this franchise back a lot.

People bitch about trading a 15-20 pick for Hamonic who is a solid top 4 defenseman for us could you imagine trading ayoung #1 C who consistently scores 60 points for a 40 point winger with questionable work ethic and a big maybe? No thanks to that at all.

If that kids name was Brady Johnson and that was the only change there is no way anyone would be talking about acquiring him at all.

 

[Baxterman]

Flames fans would miss Brodie dearly if we ever traded him. Very underappreciated player

Brodie from before this year probably, the Brodie of this year not a chance we miss him.

Now for me the biggest change is this year he seems to just skate around wherever he feels like and for some reason that is rarely where he should be so it isn't like he has lost a step or had any other physical aspect that is likely to stick long term. But his decision making and positioning hasn't been just bad this year it has been baffling. I mean Wideman made horrible decisions but for the most part I understood what he was doing. His terrible pinches were awful but you could see he was trying to keep the puck in, stop the guy early etc. But with Brodie this year you look up expecting to see him in his area and he is just randomly in the middle of the ice covering nobody. It is odd. I think the Flames can fix that by getting him to play a more simple, controlled game but if this is the norm going forward I don't think we miss this version of Brodie that much at all.

 

[Sparky93]

I think Brady Tkachuk is very overrated in general but wildly overrated by Flames fans especially because of the name on the back of his jersey.

Galchenyuk and Brady for Monahan is a terrible deal and has the potential to set this franchise back a lot.

People ***** about trading a 15-20 pick for Hamonic who is a solid top 4 defenseman for us could you imagine trading ayoung #1 C who consistently scores 60 points for a 40 point winger with questionable work ethic and a big maybe? No thanks to that at all.

If that kids name was Brady Johnson and that was the only change there is no way anyone would be talking about acquiring him at all.

I don’t know, I see a lot of Toews in Brady, only meaner. He’ll never win the scoring race but heart and soul, with great leadership abilities. Actually, probably more like his old man than Toews. I like Monahan. I think, he can be a 60 point center, even without Gaudreau but I don’t see him ever being a great leader. He’s just too soft and seems to lack the ferocious competitiveness that all great leaders have.

 

[Baxterman]

I don’t know, I see a lot of Toews in Brady, only meaner. He’ll never win the scoring race but heart and soul, with great leadership abilities. Actually, probably more like his old man than Toews. I like Monahan. I think, he can be a 60 point center, even without Gaudreau but I don’t see him ever being a great leader. He’s just too soft and seems to lack the ferocious competitiveness that all great leaders have.

maybe, it just seems like all his stats were worse than Matthews at the same levels, he wasn't very impressive at the WJHC although as a draft eligible guy that isn't unexpected and basically everytime I hear or read about him there is a reference to how Matthew is doing at the NHL as though that means Brady will succeed as well.

It is obviously going to be natural to compare him to his brother or his dad but I guess I wish I could see and read more about what Brady does well then constantly see people talking up Matt and basically saying that while Brady isn't as good he is a bigger pain and he could be like Matthew at the NHL level.

Personally with the way this team goes into funks when the top line (more like top two guys) aren't scoring i think I will take scoring over heart and soul and get those intangibles from a much less costly source.

 

[viper0220]

Lots of good posts here.

I hope that we don’t trade any core players, the problem is coaching , if we had better coaching than we are a top team in the league.

Wait till the off season and let this whole coaching staff go and hire someone who can take this team far. I think Coach Q will be let go in the off-season, if Chicago does not make the playoffs(same thing with Babcock in Detroit.) Get him and let him pick his assistants and see what Coach Q do.

 

[Sparky93]

Lots of good posts here.

I hope that we don’t trade any core players, the problem is coaching , if we had better coaching than we are a top team in the league.

Wait till the off season and let this whole coaching staff go and hire someone who can take this team far. I think Coach Q will be let go in the off-season, if Chicago does not make the playoffs(same thing with Babcock in Detroit.) Get him and let him pick his assistants and see what Coach Q do.

While words can’t fully express how much I dislike this coaching staff, it wasn’t any different under Hartley. The same core has been together for the better part of 4 years and they’ve been Jekyll & Hyde from the beginning. Even with key players added every year, Bennett, Tkachuk, Hamonic and Smith, there’s no real change in the standings. At what point do you ask yourself if this core has what it takes to carry us home. I mean at the very least the core should be taking some of the onus for the dismal play at home, especially considering it appears they’re basically calling the shots, for lack of a decent coach. Teams have won with questionable coaches, poor defence and shotty goaltending but they do not win with a weak core. I mean come on, we’re 12-13-3 at home(1 game below .500, 6th worst win percentage in the NHL) and 13-5-5 on the road(8 games above .500, tied for 2nd best win percentage in the NHL). Something doesn’t add up. There’s more going on here than just the coaching staff. Has there ever been a team with the 2nd best road record in the NHL that didn’t make the playoff’s??

 

[2023FriendshipTour]

Lots of good posts here.

I hope that we don’t trade any core players, the problem is coaching , if we had better coaching than we are a top team in the league.

Wait till the off season and let this whole coaching staff go and hire someone who can take this team far. I think Coach Q will be let go in the off-season, if Chicago does not make the playoffs(same thing with Babcock in Detroit.) Get him and let him pick his assistants and see what Coach Q do.

Don't see the Flames ownership going and paying Q like 5 mil.. would be amazing though.

 

[Dack]

So right now Mangiapane is taking Bennett's place in the morning reps. Which could mean anything (healthy scratch or injury most likely) Anyone think Bennett might be moved at the deadline?

I think he'll be a 40 point player eventually but over the past 15 games or so he's back to not producing. I think he'd be part of the package if the Flames do decide to go after Hoffman, Pacioretty or Kane (pls no).