What Mode Are the Calgary Flames In… Rebuild or Retool?

Calgary Flames Closer to Retool than Rebuild

TSN: Hockey Analyst Frankie Corrado joined Jay Onrait last week on SportsCenter as he broke down the one burning question facing the seven Canadian teams. Moving to the Western Conference, Corrado believes the biggest questions facing the Calgary Flames are what kind of team they are and what direction they are going in in terms of rebuild or retooling.

** NHLRumors.com transcriptions

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Jay Onrait: “The longest time Frankie, the Calgary Flames did not like to use the word rebuild, and you know that trickled down from their owner Murray Edwards who didn’t like that word, but here we are. They seem to be embracing it now. Craig Conroy has basically stripped that roster right down.

Nazem Kadri still there, but that might not be the case at some point this season. Ryan Huska, how do you think he should feel about this rebuilding roster as we head into next season?”

Frankie Corrado: “I think the biggest question for him would be what are we going to be as a team because there’s still some good players on that roster. Some veteran guys. Nazem Kadri is one of those guys. Jonathan Huberdeau remains a big question mark as far as you know what kind of point total and what kind of production he can reach. And on the back end, you still have MacKenzie Weegar. You still have Rasmus Andersson. Like you have some good players there.

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So you’re probably not going to be bad enough that it is a scorched earth kind of rebuild. But it was maybe a little bit of a retool, but how close does that get you to the playoffs? So I think for Calgary, they’ll go into training camp, they’ll start the regular season.

And the evaluation period for that team is going to be a constant thing that’s ongoing and the success or lack of success is going to tell that group Huska and the management stuff and Craig Conroy, what the best course of action moving forward is.

I think, for Huska, you’re probably thinking what exactly are we and that remains to be seen as the season gets going.”