Why does everyone want to leave Calgary?

The Flames face a potential crisis this offseason with Elias Lindholm, Mikael Backlund, Tyler Toffoli and Noah Hanifin all entering the final year of their contracts, and none of this group of key players willing to consider an extension in Calgary.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Arun, from your outside perspective, what do you think of this looming mass exodus from Calgary? And what do you think they should do?

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Yeah, I mean, I think they have to commit to a direction, right? I mean, it doesn't seem to make sense on the outside for them to blow it up, especially considering how good they were two years removed. Like, two seasons ago, they were, behind Florida, maybe the best shot creation team in the league. The analytics were quite good.

Like, I don't know what went wrong this year. You have to imagine that a lot of the frustration has to deal with being coached by Darryl Sutter. Tyler Toffoli seemed to be the lone player that really actually liked Darryl Sutter, right, from my view of it. So maybe that speaks to his discontent.

But other guys, I'm a little surprised. From my read of it, it seems that either Mikael Backlund could be the captain of the Flames or he wants out. Like, I don't know.

I think some of these guys are realizing they might be more coveted on the open market than they are with the Flames. And that's part of it, too. Like, Elias Lindholm would get a massive return and a huge new deal with another team, too.

So I wonder what this speaks to the Flames' ownership group and if there's been a disconnect with the new regime and what they want to do. Like, I don't know what Craig Conroy and Ryan Huska want to do necessarily.

But I think a lot of this is, like, well, we have an open canvas now. Because not only are the players who want out valuable on the trade market. But if all four of those guys leave, they can shape the team however they what to. They could also trade Jacob Markstrom, if there is a buyer for him.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: He has an NMC. Keep that in mind. And I think he needs to come back.

OMAR: Does he really?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, he does. Jacob Markstrom has a no boo-boo clause, and he does want to come back. I know that for sure.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: [INAUDIBLE] deal with is, too, is, like, teams sometimes, and rightfully so, I guess, internally believe in their players quite a bit. You know, I think out of the 32 teams in the league, 24 of them think they can win the cup. And that's how you end up getting these deals that look bad. Or the Flames, maybe they were just good for one year. Maybe they were just a one-year wonder, who knows, despite the numbers indicating otherwise.

So I'm not sure. Like, I think Elias Lindholm, if you put him in a package with some of those guys mentioned, he would fetch a [INAUDIBLE] for that trade. You know, are the [INAUDIBLE]--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: [INAUDIBLE]

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Huh? Yeah. I think, honestly, as much as I detest the idea of a Willie Nylander trade, I think making a trade for reactionary sake makes no sense. Because Elias Lindholm is such an elite defender, like, he may be--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You need more than Willie Nylander.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: --you need that. I think that's at the lower end of what a tradeblock-- a tradeback should look like, because he brings something different, that he is an elite defense player with scoring tools. So I don't know. I don't know what's happening in Calgary from the outside looking in. And I'm happy to admit that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's OK.

ARAN SRINIVASAN: I'm waiting to see how the dominoes fall. There's a lot of compelling pieces. But it seems to me that, like, Craig Conroy and Ryan Huska may have just a totally-- just open canvas to work with in a few weeks.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I'll say this. As someone who's in this situation right now, I totally understand that other side of like, OK, these guys want to leave. There's an opportunity for them to rebuild or at least retool on the fly, get some assets, get some draft picks. And I really think the Flames should be doing that.

I also understand the people who look at this and they're like, why don't nobody-- why doesn't anyone want to play here? Like, Omar put up the beam of Will Smith in the empty house in "Prince of Bel-Air," like Huberdeau and Weegar. I get it. We're not even a year since both Tkachuk and Gaudreau left Calgary.

Imagine being a Calgary Flames fan and those guys want to leave? And then after all that, hey, Lindholm might want to leave. He might stay, but he also might want to leave. And Hanifin and Toffoli apparently want to leave.

Mikael Backlund, who people in this city, even though he's going to be 35. He's coming off his best year, and he might not play better than what he did last year, they still want him to be captain. He means so much to this team. They also wouldn't blame him if he wanted a shot at a cup.

I also understand that Flames' fans are just-- they're taking a kick to the teeth right now because it seems as if people don't want to be in that market, and they're saddled with these contracts that essentially are keeping them from doing this full rebuild that they want. I can sympathize a little bit with that.

And at the same time, the organization did this to themselves. The Darryl Sutter hire, clearly, it poisoned something in the culture. I mean, you can't really do anything about the climate, but the damn rink sucks. The Saddledome sucks.

And look, it is what it is. It has its charm-- best sight line in the league. If you ever go to the press box and watch a game from there, great view to watch a game. It's over 40 years old. It has little to no real adjustments to it.

If you are going into the-- the road locker room in Calgary is better than the players' own. It's a joke. It shouldn't be that way. I shouldn't be able to walk into the road locker room and realize, wow, it's so spacious and nice, and you can go from each stall to another. I should not be going into the main locker room for the Flames and have all these different stalls there. And then some extra player who can't get his own stall has a moving crate with all of his gear on top. That's a real thing that's happened.

Like, it's a joke. There's a reason why Mackenzie Weeger got clowned in that video of walking through-- well, maybe not him specifically-- but the Flames got clowned with Mackenzie Weeger walking through the Flames' locker room and looking around like, oh, OK, this is nice. It doesn't look good. And the Flames let that slide. And I guess that's a part of it. It's not the reason.

But the teams in small markets, it's on those teams to build up their teams as best as possible to make it an environment for people to want to stay longer, to make them competitive so they say, hey, you know what? It might not be LA. It might not be Montreal. It might not be Toronto. But I know Calgary is a winning environment. But damn it. If the team is not doing enough to make that possible, you almost can't blame players for wanting to leave. Omar.

OMAR: Yeah. And then it's just like, with all of this, like, this conversation here and all the news about the players who may want out, I thought back to Craig Conroy's intro interview or introductory--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Press conference, yeah.

OMAR: Press conference, thank you. And there's a particular quote that he said that came to my mind. I just want to read it verbatim because I don't want to butcher it.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Sure.

OMAR: He said-- it was about the idea of making Calgary a good place to play. And he says, "The reality is you have to let me know if you want to be here. And if you don't, you also have to let me know that. My job is to make sure we put the best team on the ice and make sure asset-- and make sure asset management is a big thing for me.

I just don't want to ever see someone just walk away for free. If they want to be here, great. If not, I'd be disappointed because all these guys are huge parts of the team, but I understand. Some people just say, hey, you know what, it's not for me and that we'll work with what we have from there and move forward."

Now, the cynic in me and the joking person in me thinks, I wonder if the players were like, OK, right?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: [INAUDIBLE]

OMAR: It's just interesting, right? Because we went from the report saying that multiple players had put in a trade request because of-- Sutter was still going to be there. They took it back because he got fired. And now then that quote gets stated. And now we're at a point where multiple players are saying, I have no intentions of resigning.

So I don't know. It's just fascinating to me that all of it happened all at once. And again, if Calgary ends up better from this or they're able to maintain the status quo from not this past season but the year before that, I'll be thoroughly impressed.

But it really does look like they're on the verge of at least having another year where they just may not be as good. They may try. They may be more competitive. But I can't see a scenario where they're losing Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, all these players, and are better for it. But, hey, I hope they can prove me wrong. I'd be fascinated to see it.