With the Darryl Sutter era coming to an end in Calgary, the Flames need to go into a full rebuild.
Darryl Sutter has been a dead man walking for almost a year now.
It began with the acquisition of a washed-up, $3-million Ales Kotalik, continued when he gave up a third-rounder for ageing, depleted warrior Steve Staios, and reached comedic levels when his signing of Olli Jokinen evoked the Calgary Herald headline: "You must be Jokinen."
Then he signed Matt Stajan to a four-year, $14-million deal.
So on Tuesday the Flames finally fired Sutter, a very good man whose time in one city had simply come to a close. It's no sin. It happens to all of us -- even sports writers -- at one time or another.
The difference is, of course, that Sutter has left behind a formidable mess in Calgary. There, Flames fans watch their stultifying team every night, firm in the knowledge that it is old, slow, and has to get worse before it is destined to get any better.
Yes, Flames fan, you have the third eldest roster in the NHL, the second highest payroll, and the No. 23 team in the NHL standings. A .473 team thus far this season, Calgary needs to play .667 hockey to make the playoffs.
"We recognize the hole we've dug for ourselves, how difficult the road ahead is," acting general manager Jay Feaster told sportsnet.ca Tuesday afternoon. "When we look at where we are, we still want to be a playoff team. At the same time, we're also going to continue to monitor."
He'd never say it, but here's how it works: The owners and the president want playoff gates, so the GM can't start the teardown until it is obvious those gates are not attainable.
So Feaster's plan will unfold deliberately:
"You don't put a plan in place today ... and don't change that plan as the world changes around you. It's a flexible plan. If (playoffs) are not realistic at all, obviously there would be a different plan," he said. "No option is off the table. As we talk to the players today we recognize we have to win two out of every three games to make the playoffs."
This team isn't likely to make the Top 8, and if it squeezed in, what are the odds it would win a round in the powerful Western Conference?
Feaster is adamant that he won't continue the Flames tradition as first-round fodder. So that means he needs to know before the NHL trading deadline of Feb. 28. That is the day when the market peaks, when the first spade of a rebuild is thrust into the ground.
He needs blueprints by about Feb. 15 -- whether to trade assets, or hang in for another futile playoff run.
"I think it's even sooner than that," Feaster corrected. "It's something we'd monitor on a daily, a weekly basis. Depending on how the world changes."
Both Miikka Kiprusoff and Jarome Iginla have no-movement clauses, and are big cap hits to be taken on by someone else. Those trades are not engineered overnight, to be sure.
But how big a kick-start would the rebuild get if Feaster could play Washington and Philadelphia off for the services of Kiprusoff? Each Eastern power knows the other would surpass them if they had the goalie we call "Turku Broda," upping Feaster's largesse.
And if one of those clubs gets the goalie, how badly would Pittsburgh come after Iginla to play on Crosby's wing? And don't forget about Los Angeles.
For now, Iginla won't bite on the rebuild. He was saying all the right things Tuesday, as he usually does.
"We still think we can get back in it this year and if we are able to ... be on a heck of a run, to win two of every three of our remaining games," Iginla said. "That's really where my focus is. It's not on 'What ifs?' or 'If this changes, or that?' If you start thinking too much, it wastes energy as far as preparing for games and being in the right mindset."
Couldn't agree more, Iggy.
This is an old, slow team that is capped out this season and has a crippling $56 million-plus committed for next season. It is loaded with players whose statistics have been on the decline for the past few seasons, and this franchise has very little of consequence in its farm system or on its draft board.
The Flames now have to descend for a while, before this team can rise again. So let's not get caught up in "What ifs?"
Let the tear-down begin immediately, because it's the only way for this franchise.
The Flames can't just dip their toes in the waters of a rebuild here. They've got to race to the bottom, then slowly begin the climb back up to the top.
Feaster is the man for the job, and in Iginla and Kiprusoff, he has the tools to begin the project.
It's going to hurt for a while, Calgary, but it's time.
Finally.
