The expectations were high for the Flames this year. After putting up an outstanding effort in the off-season to bring in star players in Jonathan Huberdeau, Nazem Kadri, and Mackenzie Weegar to replace Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, the Flames simply couldn't get it together and failed to make it to the post-season dance.
The team's GM Brad Treliving ended up stepping away from his role after the season ended and the reports that came in afterward revealed that he no longer wanted to work with the team's bench boss, Darryl Sutter.
This may not be coming off as a surprise since on multiple occasions in the season player express their discord with the coach, Huberdeau and Kadri both came out to the media on the subject. Both of them clearly didn't perform up to expectations.
Darren Dreger was on Sekeres and Price earlier today and dropped quite the news on the mess that is the Flames' locker room after this disastrous season. He revealed that some players, who were still under contract, are willing to not come back to the Flame if Sutter remains in position:
Trelivin left after he had done a great job with the team's core and will be under contract for at least another season. However, things will definitely look different heading into the 2024 summer since they'll then need to re-sign Elias Lindholm, Tyler Toffoli, Mickael Backlund, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov.
Unless they find a way to get their team together, this roster could be looking a lot different. Moving forward, if the players decide to go through with their ‘'strike'', it'll be intriguing to see how the team's ownership reacts.
