The Calgary Flames are used to getting nothing for their first- and third-round draft picks.
But to skip the formality of the draft altogether and simply gift your picks to someone else who may actually benefit from them seems unusually charitable, doesn’t it?
Surely, any organization that frittered away such assets to a rival would ensure heads rolled.
After all, shouldn’t management be as accountable as players?
The question, then, is whether GM Jay Feaster or someone else should lose their job following what could easily have gone down as one of the biggest front-office gaffes in NHL history.
Sportsnet.ca scribe Chris Johnston broke the news Friday morning that, had the Colorado Avalanche not matched the two-year, US$10-million offer sheet for Ryan O’Reilly, the 22-year-old centre wouldn’t have been able to join the Flames without first clearing waivers — an exercise that would have seen him snapped up immediately by a bottom-feeder.
