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To rebuild or not to rebuild? That’s Calgary’s question

Jarome Iginla

The Calgary Flames will miss the playoffs for the third straight season, but it’s not like they’re in year three of some five-year plan to make the postseason and win the Stanley Cup. Although they haven’t been traded away their future in an ultimately futile attempt to make the playoffs, the Flames’ front office has also resisted the notion that they need to blow up the team and start over. They bulk every time the idea of trading Jarome Iginla comes up. However, at what point should they decide that it’s no longer worthwhile to stay the course?

Of course, from the players’ perspective, the idea of blowing up the team and rebuilding it isn’t particularly appealing.

“As a player, you never want to believe the answers aren’t in the room,” said Mark Giordano. “It’s tough because at times we’ve shown we can be a really good hockey team, and be a team that battles with good teams and is right there. But, at times we haven’t.”

At times almost any team looks like a contender. Throughout a season every team has hot and cold streaks and while it’s true that Calgary had their chances to make the postseason, they never looked like more than a team that could just barely squeeze in. Maybe its fine for the front office to roll the dice on a team like this in the short run, but it’s not a long-term strategy, especially when the core players of their team in Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff are entering the twilight years of their careers.