When Jay Feaster took over the Calgary Flames' general manager duties in December of 2010, he thought he had enough pieces to tweak his roster into a playoff team.
Three years and three months later, Feaster finally realized he was wrong.
The start of the rebuild was kicked off by dealing Jarome Iginla to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, March 27. In return for the 35-year-old superstar, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer, Calgary acquired a 2013 first-round pick, Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hanowski.
It is better late than never for Feaster to bring in some young assets for Iginla, but it seems the 51-year-old GM was took to the cleaners by Penguins GM Ray Shero. Agostino and Hanowski aren't even rated in the Penguins' top-10 prospects by The Hockey News' Future Watch issue. Not to mention, with the Penguins poised to take a run at the Stanley Cup, it seems their first rounder will be a late one.
Frankly, Edmonton Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini fetched more for Dustin Penner in 2011 from the Los Angeles Kings. In the deal, Edmonton acquired Colton Teubert, the 13th overall pick in the 2008 draft, the 19th overall pick in 2011, which they used to draft Oscar Klefbom, and a third-round pick in 2012, which they used to draft Danill Zharkov.
One has to keep in mind Feaster originally had a deal lined up with the Boston Bruins. But Iginla stopped it and asked to go to Pittsburgh. The trade with the Bruins, however, seemed to be hardly at all in better interest for the Flames.
But hats off to Shero. He landed Iginla, Brenden Morrow from the Dallas Stars and Douglas Murray from the San Jose Sharks without trading his three top prospects: London Knights defenceman Olli Maatta, Portland Winterhawks blueliner Derrick Pouliot and left-winger Beau Bennett, who was the 20th overall pick of the 2010 entry draft.
If Feaster would have started this process from day one, the Flames would be in much better shape than they are. Instead of looking down the barrel of two or three years out of the playoffs, they might be on the grasp of making some noise in the second season.
So that begs the question, why did Feaster think he had the pieces to avoid the rebuild?
Up front, the Flames had Iginla, Olli Jokinen, Matt Stajan, Rene Bourque, Curtis Glencross, and Alex Tanguay as their core. On the back end, Jay Bouwmeester was their centrepiece with Robyn Regehr, Mark Giordano, and Cory Sarich as the supporting cast. And of course, Miikka Kiprusoff guarded the blue paint.
Although Feaster inherited some valuable pieces such as an all-star goalie, Kiprusoff, a smooth skating puck-moving defenceman in his 20s, Bouwmeester, and one of the greatest wingers and captains in the NHL, Iginla, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they didn't have the core to become a realistic contender.
So what's next? It appears the Flames are poised to take a page out of the Oilers' playbook because a lot of high draft picks are about to come their way.
If the season ended today, Calgary would finish second last in the league behind the Colorado Avalanche. So they would be guaranteed a top-3 pick, ensuring them one of Portland Winterhawks defensive star Seth Jones, Halifax Mooseheads offensive wizards Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathon Drouin and Finish power-forward Alexsader Barkov.
Although anyone of those star-studded prospects would be a strong start to the rebuild in Calgary, scouts believe Jones, a 6-foot-4, 206-pound defender, would be the ideal young gun to land.
"I really think Jones has separated himself as the top prospect," said head scout of International Scouting Services, Ross MacLean, to Yahoo! Sports. "There is just so much to like in his game. He projects so well and already has an NHL ready skill set. He has performed very well on the biggest stages so far this year and outshone the others who could challenge his top ranking at every turn and in every head-to-head meeting. The only way he doesn't go number one at this point is if the team picking at one desperately wants a forward. Even so, he might be too good to pass up."
The Flames do have some pieces besides their upcoming first-round pick to mold a team around.
Despite not cracking the big club this year, Sven Bartschi, the 13th overall pick in the 2011 draft, stands out as their top prospect by a country mile. The 5-foot-10, 181-pounder was a scoring machine with the Winterhawks the past two years, racking up 67 goals and 179 points in 103 games.
Besides Bartschi, 2012 first-round pick Mark Jankowski, Max Reinhart, the son of the former NHLer Paul Reinhart, NCAA star John Gaudreau and Winterhawks blueliner Tyler Wotherspoon all stand out as blue-chip prospects.
They also have Mikael Backlund, the team's 24th overall pick in 2007. But the jury is still out on whether the Swedish centre can be a core piece for the Flames.
All in all, the Flames could be a strong looking young team by 2014-15 if they land top-5 picks this year and next. But as teams such as the Columbus Blue Jackets and Edmonton Oilers have shown, it takes more than high draft picks for a club to become a winner.
