Let's talk about the Calgary Flames for a second here. On Sunday night, the Calgary Flames lost to the most pitiful roster in the NHL. The top line centre for the Hawks right now is Jason Dickinson who has 13 goals and 20 points on the season. Their second line centre is Mackenzie Entwistle with a roaring 5 points in 31 games. The rest of the roster does not fair any better and no disrespect meant but I had no idea who half of the players are on this roster; their names sound like the computer generated ones you get in Year 15 of GM Mode on NHL24.

None of this is the Hawks fault. They were not going to compete this season but they are also plagued by injuries. Taylor Hall, Connor Bedard, Andres Athanasiou, Seth Jones, Taylor Raddysh, Tyler Johnson, Anthony Beauvillier, and Nick Foligno. All on LTIR. The Hawks have more cap on IR than their active roster.

Anyways, back to the Flames losing to this team.

The Flames lose 4-3 against a team that would struggle to win games in the AHL, hopefully cementing to the top brass in Calgary that this team needs to blow it up and rebuild. Huberdeau, Kadri, Lindholm, Coleman, Backlund, Andersson, Weegar, Markstrom. This isn't "a playoff core." Make no mistake, there are good players here but Calgary lacks elite talent at every position with perhaps the one exception being in net.

Despite this embarrassing loss there are reports that the Flames are still trying to extend the likes of Lindholm and Hanifin and are prepared to offer contracts north of 7-8 million to get these deals done. Somehow this organization still believes they are just a player or two away from being a legitimate threat. If those two players are Connor McDavid and Cale Makar, maybe, but otherwise they need to face reality.

Calgary has never drafted higher than 4th overall when they selected Sam Bennett... who asked for a trade. The second highest they selected was 6th overall when they selected Matt Tkachuk... who also asked for a trade. While Flames fans seem to be proud of never being a lottery team, let's take a look at every Stanley Cup winner over the past decade:

22/23 Golden Knights: Eichel (2nd overall)
21/22 Avalanche: MacKinnon (1st overall), Landeskog (2nd overall), Cale Makar (4th overall)
19/20, 20/21 Lightning: Stamkos (1st overall), Hedman (2nd overall)
18/19 Blues - Boumeester (3rd overall), Pietrangelo (4th overall)
17/18 Capitals: Ovechkin (1st overall) Backstrom (4th overall)
16/17, 15/16 Penguins: Crosby (1st overall), Malkin (2nd overall), Fleury (1st overall)
14/15 Blackhawks: Toews (3rd overall), Kane (1st overall)
13/14 Kings: Doughty (2nd overall)

Every Cup winner in the last decade has had at least a top 3 pick on their roster, most of them drafted by that team. The two exceptions are the Golden Knights who acquired Eichel but that was a unique situation that we typically do not see. The other exception is the Blues and while Boumeester was not drafted by the Blues, Pietrangelo at 4th overall was.

The modern NHL is driven by top end players and Calgary simply doesn't have any. Their top two scorers in Coleman and Kadri are tied for 76th in the NHL in scoring. The Flames have not advanced past the 2nd round since the 03/04 season where they lost to the Lightning in the Stanley Cup Finals. Since then they have won 3 playoff rounds. One in 14/15 before losing 4-1 against the Ducks, winning the best of three qualifying round in 19/20 before losing 4-2 against the Stars, and in 21/22 where they lost 4-1 against the Oilers.

For the sake of the Battle of Alberta the Flames need to commit to a legitimate rebuild and build a roster that can do more than maybe make or just miss the playoffs. They owe it to Flames and Oilers fans alike to build a legitimate contender to make the Battle of Alberta the can't miss sporting event it deserves to be.

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Anyways, the Oilers need to win this game tonight or I'm going to have to deal with some really well-deserved chirps in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

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