The big thing for the Flames is to draft and develop. Almost every team that has won a cup of the last 10-20 had sucked for a while, drafted high, and turned into a great team. The big problem with being a middling team is you never draft high. You are never great and you are never bad, so you get mid first rounders at best.
Look at the last few cup winners and their drafting.
Tampa took Stamkos 1st overall and also drafted a lot of other top tier players on the team, Kucherov, Hedman, Vasilevsky etc.
St Louis drafter Pietrangelo, Tarasenko, etc
Caps obviously had Ovechkin 1st overall, along with Backstrom, Carlson, Kuznetsov etc.
Penguins had Crosby, Malkin, Talbot, Flower etc
Blackhawks had Towes/Kane along with seabrook, Keith and many others.
The closest thing to that now who have yet to win are Edmonton/Toronto with Mcjesus, Matthews, Draisitl, Marner etc.
I would much rather the Flames absolutely suck for a year or so, trade any decent player for picks, take some really high draft picks a few years in a row and build a powerhouse team that can compete for 10 years. If they keep doing the same formula it will be the same result, either barely making or missing the playoffs and middle of the first round draft pics at best.
/end rant
_____ASP______
current ski quiver:
park, all mtn 181 ON3P Kartel 98
park,all mtn: 181 Armada AR7
big mtn, pow: 185 Armada JJ