How has the rebuild leveraged existing assets?

7 years ago

Rebuilds can be a painful, protracted process. As we’ve seen up the road in Edmonton, a rebuild that is conducted improperly can become a never-ending cycle of disappointment that lasts the better part of a decade.

The Calgary Flames began the rebuild on March 27, 2013 when they threw in the towel and traded away Jarome Iginla. By taking a look at the 2012-13 Flames roster, we can get a sense of how well the Flames have leveraged existing assets as they have worked through their rebuild.

Here’s the roster sheet from Jan. 20, 2013, the opening date of the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season.

(Anton Babchuk and Roman Cervenka were on the injured reserve, while Jiri Hudler began the season on bereavement leave.)

ASSETS RETAINED

D Mark Giordano

D Dennis Wideman

D T.J. Brodie

F Mikael Backlund

F Matt Stajan

ASSETS TURNED INTO CURRENT ASSETS

D Jay Bouwmeester: traded to St. Louis for Mark Cundari, Reto Berra and a 2013 first round pick; Cundari left as a free agent, Berra was flipped to Colorado for a 2014 second round pick used to take Hunter Smith, and the 2013 first was used to take Emile Poirier.
D Cory Sarich & F Alex Tanguay: traded (together) to Colorado for David Jones and Shane O’Brien; O’Brien received a compliance buyout, while Jones was traded to Minnesota for pending free agent Niklas Backstrom and a 2016 sixth round pick used to select Matt Phillips.
F Jarome Iginla: traded to Pittsburgh for Kenny Agostino, Ben Hanowski and a 2013 first round pick, which they used to select Morgan Klimchuk. Agostino and Hanowski both left via free agency.
F Tim Jackman: traded to Anaheim for a 2014 sixth round pick, used to select Adam Ollas Mattsson.
F Lee Stempniak: traded to Pittsburgh for a 2014 third round pick, which they traded to Chicago for Brandon Bollig.
F Curtis Glencross: traded to Washington for a 2015 second round pick and 2015 third round pick; the second was traded to Boston as part of a package used to acquire Dougie Hamilton, while the third was traded to Arizona so the Flames could trade up and draft Oliver Kylington. (The remainders of each package traded were the Flames’ original picks in the first three rounds of the 2015 draft.)
F Sven Baertschi: traded to Vancouver for a 2015 second round pick, used to select Rasmus Andersson.
F Roman Horak: traded to Edmonton (with Laurent Brossoit) for Olivier Roy (who left as a free agent) and Ladislav Smid.
F Jiri Hudler: traded to Florida for a 2016 second round pick, used to select Tyler Parsons, and a 2018 fourth round pick.

ASSETS TURNED INTO ASSETS THAT WALKED

F Blake Comeau: traded to Columbus for a 2013 fifth round pick, used to select Eric Roy (who they didn’t sign).

ASSETS THAT WALKED

F Mike Cammalleri: left as a free agent.
F Steve Begin: retired.
D Derek Smith: left as a free agent.
D Chris Butler: left as a free agent.
G Miikka Kiprusoff: retired.
G Leland Irving: left as a free agent.
F Blair Jones: left as a free agent.
D Anton Babchuk: left as a free agent.
F Roman Cervenka: left as a free agent.

SUM IT UP

The Flames had 25 bodies on their extended roster when the 2012-13 season (year zero of the rebuild) began. They turned the entirety of that roster into Mark Giordano, Dennis Wideman, T.J. Brodie, Dougie Hamilton, Ladislav Smid, Oliver Kylington, Rasmus Andersson, Adam Ollas Mattsson, Brandon Bollig, Hunter Smith, Emile Poirier, Morgan Klimchuk, Matt Phillips, Tyler Parsons and a 2018 fourth round pick.

Three Flames general managers turned 25 assets into 15 since 2012-13.

If you look at when the assets were traded, you’ll probably notice that Treliving has done a better job than Feaster or Burke did at leveraging existing assets and turning them into something useful. (See: Glencross, Baertschi, Hudler.)