Disaster in Calgary

JACK CUSANO/REUTERS

Calgary Flames players, from left, Ales Kotalik, David Moss, Nigel Dawes and Eric Nystromto react at the end of their NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks in Calgary, April 6, 2010.

The question last fall wasn't whether the Calgary Flames would make the playoffs. It was whether they could challenge San Jose and Chicago for the top of the Western Conference.

Dominated by the Sutter clan from the front office to the coaching staff to the scouts to the players, this was as much about one family as it was about one team. That the Flames, managed by Darryl Sutter and coached by Brent Sutter, won't be playing any post-season matches this spring will likely have major repercussions that could render the team Sutter-less in short order.

Darryl Sutter started making bad trades in the winter of '09, picking up Olli Jokinen from Phoenix and giving up his 2010 first rounder in the process, and kept making them this year. The deal that sent Dion Phaneuf was awful, didn't produce a team turnaround and was made worse by a decision to sign Matt Stajan to a $14 million contract that even the doormat Leafs wouldn't have considered.

Jokinen was peddled to New York, which many viewed as addition by subtraction. The only problem was that Jokinen, at least, was an expiring contract. The Flames don't have to worry about the nearly useless Chris Higgins beyond this season, but they get to pay Ales Kotalik $3 million for each of the next two years, heavy dough for a player nearly as useless as Higgins.

As a trio of trades, the first Jokinen deal, the Phaneuf transaction and the second Jokinen represent a remarkably mediocre effort by Darryl Sutter to fix his roster. The decision to sign Jay Bouwmeester to a gigantic contract doesn't look great either given that Bouwmeester was good, but nothing close to great, as a Flame. He's got four more years at $6.6 million per coming and based on this season, is a stay-at-home defenceman without much offensive game.

Brent Sutter, eliminated in the first round of the playoffs two years in a row in Jersey, now misses them entirely.The aura he had as the best coach outside the NHL while guiding the Canadian national junior team to gold medals has completely evaporated.

Then there's Jarome Iginla, goal-less in his last nine games, a hero from the Vancouver Olympics but no hero in Calgary today. There are those who dream the Flames might flip Iginla to Boston for the Bruins top pick acquired from the Leafs, but given that the 33-year-old Iginla has three more years at $7 million per season, the Flames would probably have to throw something else into the deal to make the B's even think about doing it.

Yes, Boston, the NHL's lowest scoring team, needs goals. But the Flames were only one spot better on offence than Boston, and that was with Iginla. Logically, he wouldn't be able to make that much of a difference to the Bruins.

This is a mess in Calgary, and suddenly both teams in Alberta, the Oilers and Flames, have hit hard times. The Sutters might think they can patch things and get back into the playoffs next spring, but as currently constructed, this is a team without a present or a future.

The Oilers, likely with the top pick in the June draft, have a bushel of bad contracts. So their return to competitiveness won't be easy, either.

Comments

[Arik]

Higgins is hardly useless, he was a solid 2 way player who drove possession and got robbed on SH%. Kotalik was much worse, and will be much more expensive in the long run.

[J]

Jarome with a Marc Savard might be a good fit.

If Savard ever plays again.

[Jeff Nehajowich]

The Oilers are in a waaaay better situation than the Flames. The Oilers, with their draft picks, youth and prospects could compete for a playoff spot next season and could be great in a few seasons.

[Lorne in Callander]

It's not quite this simple, or is it? I'm referring to the JayBo factor. I cringed when the Flames signed him last summer. Jay Bouwmeester has never played on a team that made the playoffs in his life. His unblemished record remains intact. The 5 years he plays in Calgary will make all those first round exits by the Flames seem like heaven for them and their fans.

[FlamesFaninNYC]

So many things wrong with this team.
GM is garbage...anyone who signs Stajan to top line money is garbage.
Anyone who trades for Jokinen, when they see he is no playmaking centre...garbage.
Scorers are all on the wing- Iginla, Borque, and Nystrom...
Sad really.
No first round draft pick this year......no second rounder either.
Give up Phanuef for absolutely nothing.......
Insane,

[Chad Lacelle]

It's not like the Sutter brothers were known for their offensive abilities, not sure why people are surprised they were near the bottom for scoring again this year. They are built for the playoffs, low scoring, grinding games. I'm sure the Sharks are glad they are out because they would have been a very difficult team to beat in a 7 game series with the average score probably being 2-1.

Don't get me started on Jokinen (jokenen), he should be the most overated player. The Phaneuf trade was great for Toronto but I'm really surprised that Calgary was not able to get a better package. Why would anyone think that 3 players from Toronto would turn the team around, it was like Toronto West.

Is it any wonder Iginla's stats dropped off after the Olympics? Imagine what he could do with a full season playing with at least one or two other top players. No offense to Stajan, nice guy but I would consider him a great 3rd line player, not a first line.

Is Toskola under contract next year? If so, do you think they would consider trading Kiprusoff and Iginla to Boston for Rask/Thomas and 1st round pick, I know crazy but if you look at Sutter's history of trades would you be surprised?

[Mike M]

Damien - the original trade to acquire Jokinen certainly looks bad in retrospect, but at the time my recollection is that everyone thought it was a good addition for the Flames (I don't recall you objecting at the time). They needed scoring, and he could score. Many teams wanted him. Granted, it hasn't worked out, and Sutter has to take the blame for that whether it is fair or not. But my view is that 9 out of 10 GMs would have made that trade at that time.
I agree with you 100% on everything else in the article (especially the Stajan nonsense).

[K M]

So what does this say for Canadian NHL teams and Canadian fans? Last place in both conferences, and Calgary out of the playoffs as well. The good thing is that Calgary will most likely not be as patient as management and fans of a certain team in the GTA, where the fans are all excited about the good boys in blue and white even though the results have been dismal year after year.

[mark]

@Chad The flames weren't a team built for the playoffs, because step 1 is making the playoffs. The coyotes are a low scoring grinding team. They have 102 points, grinding should win games in the regular season even if its sometimes boring to watch.

Jaybo looked like a good idea but he clearly had trouble adjusting in calgary. He may fix it next year. Jokes is the single dumbest move going. They took him from Phx where he had already spent a season not producing, and there were rumors of a bad attitude. His numers were already declining before he left Fla.

[stickhandle]

Calgary goofed when they cut Theo. Hey - not saying that he is the Theo of old ... but i'm pretty sure he would have chipped in with 20-25 goals and 50-60 pts. And the character he would bring to the room would allow the Sutter-windbags to be a little quieter. I think Sutter lost the room. Too bad for Iggy - reminds me of Mats playing all those hears without a proper complimenting linemate. I feel even worse for Kipper. Great goalie. Year after year. No goal support.

[Donnie6769]

This is just a bad article all around.

"Darryl Sutter started making bad trades in the winter of '09, picking up Olli Jokinen from Phoenix and giving up his 2010 first rounder in the process"

Any GM in the league would have made this deal at the time. Who cares if was a first round pick - many (if not most first rounders) never turn into proven 30+ goal-scorers and Ollie up until coming on board with the Flames had done this on a few occassions. The guy was a proven goal-scorer on bottom-feeding teams no less. He was a huge disappointment but you can't blame Sutter for this.

"The deal that sent Dion Phaneuf was awful"

What are you talking about???

They shed the salary of an over-paid cancer who MAY NEVER reach his potential!!!! And they got back Ian White who has been much better defensively and just as good offensively as Phaneuf this year. Furthermore, being paired with Regehr it brought the best out of Regehr's game...whereas when Phaneuf was with Regehr, Regehr looked awful.

Stajan, Hagman, Mayers were just bonuses in this deal as far as I'm concerned....

Even Bob MacKenzie said the Flames won that trade since they got the best player in the deal - being Ian White.

[Conn Smythe]

I've never understood the hype of JayBo, let alone what he has ever done to justify the contract that the Flames gave him. And don't even get me started on what Stajan is making next year.

[Geoff Read]

Darryl Sutter certainly deserves to be fired. The Phaneuf move reeked of panic. But the move that had me scratching my head the most was signing Bouwmeester. He's a decent player but not worth the money he was given. More importantly still, the Flames had trouble scoring. So what did they do? They let 40 goal man Mike Cammalleri walk, for reasons unknown, and spent the cap savings (plus more) on a defensive defenseman. That was boneheaded.The real shame of it is that they've had Iginla and Kiprusoff in the prime of their careers and aside from that one run to the final, have been unable to build a contender. That's bad management. Now the window of opportunity has likely closed.

[other mark]

Hey K M, what's with the retarded jab at the Leafs? A little upset that the Flames were fleeced? Fans in Ontario are excited about a team that is the youngest in the league, has an abundance of cap room and a GM who actually knows what he's doing. Since the trade deadline and overhaul, the Leafs have actually played consistent and pretty good hockey. Calgary fans better learn to be patient, because that team is in miserable shape with no signs of improvement on the horizon. You still have your JFJ and entitled prima dona players... we got rid of ours.

[Bryan Mallinson]

It seems that the Daryl Sutter is just an average hockey mind, instead of the elite one he needs to be to take Calgary to the next level. On the surface, the Jokinen and Bouwmeester moves looked like good ones to other average hockey minds (myself included), but I suppose an elite hockey mind would have seen they were overrated.

I disagree though that moving Iginla is the answer. He's the heart of the team, even if he struggled down the stretch. Year in, year out he's a consistent performer, and durable too. Detroit never moved Stevie Y, Colorado never moved Joe Sakic, Pittsburgh never moved Mario, because they knew you can rip the heart out of a team. Edmonton moved the heart of their team, Ryan Smyth, and haven't made the playoffs since. If anything, Calgary has to finally get someone for him to play with. The tragedy of his career is never playing with a first-rate pivot. He'll still score 500 goals. Imagine if he had played with someone like Adam Oates. Iginla isn't the problem in Calgary.

[KD]

Have to agree - there's a reason the Leafs got rid of who they did in the trade for Phaneuf. Even if Phaneuf is a dud as a Leaf, they're now Stajan-less, Hagman-less, White-less, and thanks to other trades also Blake-less and Toskala-less. Talk about addition by subtraction! And no, Toskala (Flames fans now know why Leaf fans called him "The Finnish Sieve") is not under contract next year. The chances of Boston giving up either Rask or Thomas are somewhere near the same as Stajan's chances of being MVP

[Buck]

I think this started in 04 when this team was greatly overrated after their Stanley Cup drive. Sutter began replacing skilled, fast players like Lydman and eventually Lombardi with players built in the Sutter mould, like McCarty and Sarich. He thought Jokinen was the missing piece, and then thought Phaneuf's absence would bring the team closer. He hasn't made a good deal since he got rid of Kiprusoff. As a Leaf fan, I can't believe he signed Stajan for what he did?!
The Sutter/King Era is had its run and it is time for a new regime to be given a chance (Yzerman/Nicholson?)

[Stephen B]

Cammaleri has been a heck of an addition for the Habs. I think Burke robbed Sutter in the Phaneuf deal. And no one has even mentioned that cap-related nonsense last year when the Flames couldn't ice a full team. I think it's clear that D. Sutter is in over his head; I expect him to be gone, probably never to return as an NHL GM, pretty soon.

[R.J.]

Sutter first banked on making the playoffs this year by trading that 2010 pick for Jokinen. He then tried to fix his new big money problem by trading for quantity instead of quality. He probably would have gotten better offers for both Phaneuf and Jokinen if he merely traded for equally high contract players that were either on the way out (Kovalchuk) or by trading for quantity on a good team (ala Heatley to SJ). He did neither and that's why the Flames didn't pan out. It would be like the Yankees looking to reload by trading for the Nationals and Pirates best players. Sometimes good players on crap teams are just average players everywhere else.

[Chris]

Oilers have cap space and big-time prospects on the way. With the GM saying there will be buyouts, we will have cap flexibility going forward. Stop spreading misinformation about the Oilers in Leafland Cox. Your tweet about Gilbert was utterly ridiculous. If you have actually watched the Oilers play in the last 20 games, Gilbert is looking like he might actually be worth his contract. Stop lumping us in as a team that as no future like the Laffs.

[Gerard]

Love the Iginla to Boston speculation. Dream-land must be a fun place.

Team cap information is not that hard to find ... if anyone can explain how Boston can afford to fit Iginla under their cap, I'd love to hear it.

Not. Gonna. Happen.

[Conn Smythe]

'They shed the salary of an over-paid cancer who MAY NEVER reach his potential!!!! And they got back Ian White who has been much better defensively and just as good offensively as Phaneuf this year' The key being 'this year' Donnie6769. I'm a huge Leafs fan (and love the play of Ian White) but if you think that any GM in the league would rate White over Phaneuf, you are sadly mistaken. Face it, the Leafs (who rarely make the right moves) did so if getting rid of an UFA in Stajan, White (an RFA). Hagman and Mayers were good throw ins, that I'll agree on.

[AMT]

Boy hindsight is 20/20 eh Damien. The Jokinen deal turned out to be a stinker for sure, as did the Bowmeester deal, but who would have thunk it. Before the Toronto media is ready to crown Dion Phaneuf as the next coming, or captain, their both the same thing, lets just give it some time. I"m sure his act will grow weary next season when Toronto is still out of playoffs. Every GM would have done the Bowmeester and Jokinen deals in a New York minute. But, I think Darryl should be let go. He's been GM since 03 and hasn't produced close to a winner other then 04. There have been some bad moves, bad luck, and some panicky situations, but bottom line is your supposed to put a winner on the ice and he hasn't, that is why he should lose his job. I agree with RJ, just because the Leafs are out and you media in the COU don't have anything else to talk about, maybe spend some time studying the situation, and gauging the fans reactions out west.

[Leafsfan]

Looks like Jamal Mayers will have to wait another year before making the playoffs " I want to go to a playoff contenting team"-jamal Mayers LOL