I actually want to rebuild through the draft but I also want to trade for young proven talent as well. My point was calling this team a "non playoff" team 37.5% of the way through the season after an overtime loss is just moronic. Will we make it? Probably not but no body knows and losing in overtime doesn't really prove it one way or the other.
Acquiring young talent is always acceptable, provided the team can afford it or goes about it smartly. Trading Brodie and Backlund for O'Reilly would be a terrible mistake, but trading Giordano or Bouwmeester instead - provided the Flames are rebuilding - actually makes sense.
I can why declaring the Flames as anything this is season is still very much premature, but on the other hand, they simply don't deserve the benefit of the doubt anymore for the simple reason of them having squandered every chance they've had at taking a playoff spot for the last three years in a row. Right now, the team is a couple of wins away from a playoff spot. So, it's understandable why saying blow it up seems a little hasty. However, in a month from now, they'll most likely still be a couple of wins away from a playoff spot. In that case, do you still advocate waiting it out and seeing what happens? Or would you suggest selling what they can at the deadline because history indicates that they're probably not going to make it? The fact that the roster can't put three wins together in a row should lend to the idea of Feaster at least exploring trade options for some pieces, like Giordano, Iginla and/or Kipper.
About the not ever wanting to go through a youth movement, its not hard to understand why some teams don't want to. There are as many success stories as there are failures and while the failures are almost 100% poor management and prospect development most of the time it takes years to tell if they are good or not who is to say we are good now especially prospect development over the last 10 years or so we have been brutal, and as long as Ward is on the Heat I doubt it gets much better.
While I support a rebuild (and a proper one) I don't think it is crazy to not want one because simply we have seen how brutal it is when it goes bad thank god we found Iggy and Kipper out of it, and not only that we have seen how long it can take to find talent in the draft even with high draft picks.
I can understand a team not wanting to gamble on a youth movement, especially when the current product is still selling tickets at a high rate. But in that case, the organization should ensure that their drafting and developing process are top notch. For example, New Jersey and Detroit have lost incredible amounts of talent over the last decade - Shanahan, Federov, Yzerman, Hull, Hasek, to name a few for the Wings and Neidermayer, Refalski, Parise, Stevens for the Devils. But neither of those teams has ever missed a beat despite that talent loss (New Jersey did finish 8th last a few years ago, but that was a more of a coaching issue - after they fired John MacLean, they did much better). Those teams managed to stay competitive because they put a significant emphasis on drafting and proper development. Just because they wanted to win now didn't prevent them from still developing their own talent.
Calgary didn't do any of that however. And that's why rebuilding for this team isn't a choice, it's an inevitability. They chose to rely on an aging core (which was poorly assembled) and refused to, or were simply unable to augment it to the necessary level. And now, as Kipper and Iginla can longer carry the team on their backs, there's no more playoffs. The Flames didn't draft well, they developed what they did draft horrendously and thus, they are where they are. They can't have their cake and eat too.
Like I said, this is not a case of choosing to rebuild or not, it's a matter of choosing how the Flames are going to enter an inevitable rebuilding stage. Are they going go in prepared to some degree by moving off assets and stockpiling picks and prospects or are they going to be dragged into one kicking and screaming, and thereby making a four to six year process into a seven to 10 year ordeal?
