News Article: Calgary Flames Front Office is Awesome (paraphrased)

[thenextone]

Organizational alignment playing key role in Flames’ success - TSN.ca

An innate chemistry throughout the Calgary Flames lineup, as well as the team’s coaching staff and management, has the club perched atop the Pacific Division as one of the biggest surprises in the NHL this season. Salim Valji has more.

www.tsn.ca

It’s amazing to see how the Flames have built a competent front office based on the backbone of analytics and forward thinking (that the Canucks were so successful at a decade ago) while the Canucks regressed into 90s era team run by a primitive GM and inexperienced coach.

The worst part of the article is reading how they targeting value players, like Tanev, Markstrom and Toffoli who have excelled in Calgary. Players we let walk for literally nothing because we did not value them.

Click to read more...

 

[Baby Pettersson]

Seems more like a "Benning is the worst GM of all time" kinda article than anything lol.

 

[M2Beezy]

I suppose itll take a long time to build that kind of office, like Calgarys did according to the article. Hiring Sutters uncle seems like such a genius move in hindsight for myself but from the managements POV it really looks like they knew what they were doing and correctly went for the right guy

Really is like Calgary was playing chess when Benning was trying to bite his own ear...

I really hope our new Jim and his new staff can compete at an elite level

 

[RutherPlan]

Calgary isn't the best example of building a perennial contender, they have had some terrible seasons in the past few years. Every team in the league is using analytics and they all have the same stance, its part of the decision making process but not the de facto component for decision making.

The reason why Calgary is doing well now is that their forward core has hit their prime with their average age being 28.6 vs Canucks 25.8 and they have one of the best coaches behind the bench.

Markstrom, Tanev, Toffoli argument is nonsense. They just acquired Toffoli now, Markstrom would mean Demko is traded, and Tanev isn't going to move the needle for what Canucks need on their defence. Basically ask yourself, would you rather have Markstrom over Demko and Toffoli over Garland?

Also, in the past 33 games, since BB took over, Canucks have had better success than Flames.

 

[Dough72]

every team uses stats and have for a very very long time so where is the part where Calgary is futuristic? Their fans hated their management like two months ago they were even using that mindless "old boys club" catchphrase every fanbase turns to because they don't know what else to blame it on and that one satisfies peoples programming regardless all the successful teams also have old players around

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

every team uses stats and have for a very very long time so where is the part where Calgary is futuristic? Their fans hated their management like two months ago they were even using that mindless "old boys club" catchphrase every fanbase turns to because they don't know what else to blame it on and that one satisfies peoples programming regardless all the successful teams also have old players around

Agreed, before this season started ,Flames fans were completely disenchanted with GM Treliving (following a horrific season in which they massively underachieved with a fairly healthy roster)..even their own fans/ media predicted the team to be 'on the playoff bubble'.

Not to discount the Flames performance this season (mainly due to the coach getting the most out of his roster)..The' back patting' article...like 'this was their plan all along' comes off a wee bit trite.

 

[Hansen]

Calgary isn't the best example of building a perennial contender, they have had some terrible seasons in the past few years. Every team in the league is using analytics and they all have the same stance, its part of the decision making process but not the de facto component for decision making.

The reason why Calgary is doing well now is that their forward core has hit their prime with their average age being 28.6 vs Canucks 25.8 and they have one of the best coaches behind the bench.

Markstrom, Tanev, Toffoli argument is nonsense. They just acquired Toffoli now, Markstrom would mean Demko is traded, and Tanev isn't going to move the needle for what Canucks need on their defence. Basically ask yourself, would you rather have Markstrom over Demko and Toffoli over Garland?

Also, in the past 33 games, since BB took over, Canucks have had better success than Flames.

Having Tanev with Hughes absolutely would move the needle for us right now and in the seasons since he left. Tanev maybe moved the needle the most for our team outside of goaltending over the whole Benning regime

The Markstrom/Demko decision clearly had to be made, but the big issue was just losing everyone for nothing and the enormous incompetence and disrespect shown to players who were well loved by the team. That moment moreso than anything was when the locker room lost faith in the organization.

 

[Regress2TheMeme]

My friends from Calgary who are life long Flames fans were jumping ship last season and saying they were going to be Seattle fans. Now they're eagerly waiting for the playoffs and tickled that they scooped up all these core players from the Canucks. This year is really a found money kind of year for Calgary and I wouldn't expect it to last for very long. They don't have much coming through the pipeline so this team will run out of gas pretty soon.

On a slightly related note, Flames fans and their media make me want to puke. They have this sort of sanctimonious "aren't we lovely people" attitude while being absolute, bitter haters. Kelly Hrudey, Rick Ball, Cassie Campbell, Eric Francis, are insufferable. They're like Church Lady from SNL. Their fans think that they're "salt of the earth" Canadians without being uncultured skids like those Edmonton losers, or urban, latte drinking yuppies like Vancouverites. They think they're likable because they love Simpsons avatars.

 

[Regress2TheMeme]

Having Tanev with Hughes absolutely would move the needle for us right now and in the seasons since he left. Tanev maybe moved the needle the most for our team outside of goaltending over the whole Benning regime

The Markstrom/Demko decision clearly had to be made, but the big issue was just losing everyone for nothing and the enormous incompetence and disrespect shown to players who were well loved by the team. That moment moreso than anything was when the locker room lost faith in the organization.

Yeah, letting Tanev walk and sign a bargain deal with one of our rivals was an absolute disaster. He would make a massive impact if he was still on our blueline.

 

[Tomatoes11]

I dunno. They just made a huge mistake playing Marky against Detroit and Vladar against the AVS and might have lost two points because of it.

Made absolutely no sense unless the goal was to pad Marky’s stats so they can trade him or he could win the Vezina. Or they want Colorado not to know Marky’s tendencies .

Whatever the reason was it might have cost them two points or valuable data for when/if they face Colorado in the playoffs.

I think Sutter said in the media he is scared of Colorado too. Why would you do that even if you were? Especially after you just chickened out by not playing your starter against them and getting embarrassed 3-0. Lol

Flames’ Sutter trolls Avalanche’s 1st round playoff opponent

His statement is pure gold and will surely fire up rival clubs!

www.hockeyfeed.com

 

[Petey But Really Jim]

Calgary isn't the best example of building a perennial contender, they have had some terrible seasons in the past few years. Every team in the league is using analytics and they all have the same stance, its part of the decision making process but not the de facto component for decision making.

The reason why Calgary is doing well now is that their forward core has hit their prime with their average age being 28.6 vs Canucks 25.8 and they have one of the best coaches behind the bench.

Markstrom, Tanev, Toffoli argument is nonsense. They just acquired Toffoli now, Markstrom would mean Demko is traded, and Tanev isn't going to move the needle for what Canucks need on their defence. Basically ask yourself, would you rather have Markstrom over Demko and Toffoli over Garland?

Also, in the past 33 games, since BB took over, Canucks have had better success than Flames.

I’d much rather have Toffoli than Garland. It hopefully would mean we don’t have Ekman-Larsson either.

 

[RussianRacket]

My friends from Calgary who are life long Flames fans were jumping ship last season and saying they were going to be Seattle fans.

Sounds familiar...

 

[mriswith]

Calgary isn't the best example of building a perennial contender, they have had some terrible seasons in the past few years. Every team in the league is using analytics and they all have the same stance, its part of the decision making process but not the de facto component for decision making.

The reason why Calgary is doing well now is that their forward core has hit their prime with their average age being 28.6 vs Canucks 25.8 and they have one of the best coaches behind the bench.

Markstrom, Tanev, Toffoli argument is nonsense. They just acquired Toffoli now, Markstrom would mean Demko is traded, and Tanev isn't going to move the needle for what Canucks need on their defence. Basically ask yourself, would you rather have Markstrom over Demko and Toffoli over Garland?

Also, in the past 33 games, since BB took over, Canucks have had better success than Flames.

Forward core hitting their prime because they're age 29?

Tanev doesn't move the needle for what the Canucks need on defense?

Toffoli over Garland omitting that we traded Dylan friggin Guenther along with taking OEL in that deal? And we probably wouldn't have either Pearson or Dickinson if not for the OEL deal?

The only thing I agree with is that the Flames aren't a good model. They decided to go all in with a very mediocre core when they signed Markstrom, and despite hitting on several big transactions they're still a dark horse and their window could be closed after this year depending on what Gaudreau and Tkachuk do. They've made a bunch of good moves and are having success but I wouldn't want to imitate them.

It's not that different than what CBJ did in 2019 where they were facing an impending rebuild and opted to take a swing at the contention first. Or what we're apparently doing when we try to extend Miller and trade nothing important for futures.

 

[Wo Yorfat]

Competence just looks weird to us after the last eight years.

 

[Egghead1999]

Who wrote this kind of BS? a bad memory hamster. Before their GM reluctantly bought back Sutter last season, Calgary was a tire fire. They were talking full rebuild.

 

[Egghead1999]

I dunno. They just made a huge mistake playing Marky against Detroit and Vladar against the AVS and might have lost two points because of it.

Made absolutely no sense unless the goal was to pad Marky’s stats so they can trade him or he could win the Vezina. Or they want Colorado not to know Marky’s tendencies .

Whatever the reason was it might have cost them two points or valuable data for when/if they face Colorado in the playoffs.

I think Sutter said in the media he is scared of Colorado too. Why would you do that even if you were? Especially after you just chickened out by not playing your starter against them and getting embarrassed 3-0. Lol

Flames’ Sutter trolls Avalanche’s 1st round playoff opponent

His statement is pure gold and will surely fire up rival clubs!

www.hockeyfeed.com

Did Marky play the first Calgary vs Colorado game? Also, LAK won the cup when they were 8th seed. Sutter just played some mind games here

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

WTF is this doing in the Canucks thread?

 

[F A N]

WTF is this doing in the Canucks thread?

I was trying to figure this out too. Perhaps a mod can chime in as to why we have a thread discussing an article praising Flames management.

 

[EpochLink]

WTF is this doing in the Canucks thread?

We wanna get in on the chuckwagon action in Calgary too! I wonder if they'll throw in passes to the Calgary Stampede as well?

 

[Hammer79]

Seems more like a "Benning is the worst GM of all time" kinda article than anything lol.

And what better way to do that than to sign a bunch of JB's players, lol...

Tanev is the only one that I have slight regrets over, and even with him, I felt his contract was a year too long for the money. He's paid a lot for a 20 point RHD at 32 years old, the end of peak years. RHD being a premium position is probably what got him that extra $1.5m.

I think Demko is at Markstrom's level right now, but is 5 years and 10 months younger. Letting him get claimed by Seattle to pay Markstrom $1m more AAV would have been Cam Neely level stupid.

Toffoli, fair weather player who disappointed in Montreal. I don't get the obsession over him. Yes, signing Virtanen sucked, but that doesn't mean TT was anyone's solution.

Gudbranson has been alright as a RHD, certainly not 'not even NHL level!!!' as some posters were claiming pre-season.

Goudreau is in his walk year, so Calgary is keeping him as a 'self-rental' even though they probably don't come out of the west if Colorado has anything to say about it.

They will be back to being the soft-touch team we all knew and loved in no time.

 

[theoriginalBCF]

Organizational alignment playing key role in Flames’ success - TSN.ca

An innate chemistry throughout the Calgary Flames lineup, as well as the team’s coaching staff and management, has the club perched atop the Pacific Division as one of the biggest surprises in the NHL this season. Salim Valji has more.

www.tsn.ca

It’s amazing to see how the Flames have built a competent front office based on the backbone of analytics and forward thinking (that the Canucks were so successful at a decade ago) while the Canucks regressed into 90s era team run by a primitive GM and inexperienced coach.

The worst part of the article is reading how they targeting value players, like Tanev, Markstrom and Toffoli who have excelled in Calgary. Players we let walk for literally nothing because we did not value them.

I think this is a flawed statement in that, Tanev had a massive injury history that the Cnaucks felt, and rightlyh so, they couldn't sign him. Markstrom wasn't resigned because of Demko and tbh, I would make that move 100 X out of 100. Toffoli is the one that got away, but not because thye treated him like shit. OEL held them hostage, and they wanted to secure that trade first. The Arizona GM f***ed both boston and Van because he just wanted too much. It cost the Canucks Toffoli. It had nothing to do with "not valuing them".

 

[theoriginalBCF]

And what better way to do that than to sign a bunch of JB's players, lol...

Tanev is the only one that I have slight regrets over, and even with him, I felt his contract was a year too long for the money. He's paid a lot for a 20 point RHD at 32 years old, the end of peak years. RHD being a premium position is probably what got him that extra $1.5m.

I think Demko is at Markstrom's level right now, but is 5 years and 10 months younger. Letting him get claimed by Seattle to pay Markstrom $1m more AAV would have been Cam Neely level stupid.

Toffoli, fair weather player who disappointed in Montreal. I don't get the obsession over him. Yes, signing Virtanen sucked, but that doesn't mean TT was anyone's solution.

Gudbranson has been alright as a RHD, certainly not 'not even NHL level!!!' as some posters were claiming pre-season.

Goudreau is in his walk year, so Calgary is keeping him as a 'self-rental' even though they probably don't come out of the west if Colorado has anything to say about it.

They will be back to being the soft-touch team we all knew and loved in no time.

If there is a way to get into 3rd or 2nd in the Pacific, that is what the Canucks have to be aiming for. They have a game vs the Kings, and Oilers, 3 vs the Knights, and huge games vs the Wild. Vancouver has an amazingly tough schedule. They've lost to teams they should beat, and beat teams they should lose to. If they can play either the Kings, Oilers or Flames, they match up well vs those teams, and I'd say have some advantages. Clearly the Flames have trouble with the Canucks speed, and they have a massive goal-tending advantage over the Kings or Oilers.

Gonna be fun.

 

[Dab]

A couple years ago the tune on this exact front office was a lot different. I remember when they hired Sutter people called it a dinosaur move

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Calgary did a great job reaping the benefits of an interdivisional, incompetent GM that was teeing up assets for free. Good for them.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

The worst part of the article is reading how they targeting value players, like Tanev, Markstrom and Toffoli who have excelled in Calgary. Players we let walk for literally nothing because we did not value them.

I take a grain of umbrage with that, I don't think the problem was we didn't value those players, we just had absolutely no place to fit the money in to have them back on the team. It was 100% a cap decision.