A Few Thoughts On The Man Upstairs

I’m not sure if Calgary Flames GM Jay Feaster is good at his job.

To be fair, he’s not been dealt a great hand with this team. There’s some talent, certainly, but most of it on the wrong side of 30, and with the kind of contracts that befit players who’ve had some service time in the NHL. Former GM Darryl Sutter didn’t leave any of those maxed-out-credit-card-bad 15 year deals on the books, but there’s more than a few mid-level players making way more than they should be on a team with a cap. Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff, sure- those are elite guys. They should be making the most money. But Matt Stajan? Jay Bouwmeester? Alex Tanguay? Cory Sarich? Are THOSE guys worth that money they’re pulling in? Not with what they’ve produced. Though Feaster didn’t sign most of those contracts, he’s been tasked with managing them on a capped-out team, and keeping the Flames relevant.

It’s easier for us to say “trade so-and-so” than it is to actually go out and do it. Between undesirable contracts, no-movement clauses, and the not-insignificant challenge of finding a team who wants the player that we don’t, we run into some challenges. I don’t envy Feaster’s task, having to straddle the line of appearing competitive and needing to make the team younger. It certainly appears as if management is leaning more towards being competitive rather than getting an infusion of youth that the team could probably use. Who do the Flames have that’s young and promising? It starts and mostly ends with Mikael Backlund, and while he’s shown flashes, he’s far from a sure thing as a front line player.

I come not to bury Feaster, nor do I come to praise him. Most of what we see on the Flames’ roster now is the handiwork of Sutter, a man who brought Calgary to within a game of a Stanley Cup. Sutter’s trade record was mixed, showing a fondness for veterans and grinders, and the Flames’ drafting under him was unfortunately bad.

Much as we should keep an open mind, what we’ve seen from Feaster with the Flames so far should give us aspiring armchair GMs some pause. He seems to like the Sutter idea of tweaking a team around the edges rather than making wholesale changes, which is a better strategy with an upper echelon team rather than one on the playoff periphery. He continues to favour familiar over unfamiliar, and veterans over youngsters. Last week’s trade of Brendan Morrison could be used as an argument against that were it not mostly inconsequential- the Flames got a 25 year AHL defenseman who, if we’re being brutally honest, is unlikely to make much of an impact on the NHL roster.

The Flames front office realized that Sutter’s time with the team had run it’s course last year, and they decided that Jay Feaster was the right man to steer the ship. This upcoming trade deadline will tell us a lot about what his direction for the team is. Whether he will guide them into the postseason- or through a genuine rebuilding effort- remains to be seen.