from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

...after missing the playoffs again in Tavares’s final season, the Islanders went out the next year, made the playoffs and won a round. The following year, they won two rounds. Then in the 2020-21 season, under general Lou Lamoriello and head coach Barry Trotz, the Islanders came within one win of qualifying for their first Stanley Cup final since the glory years of the early 1980s.

So, the Flames can surely use the Islanders as an encouraging case study after being rocked by the stunning back-to-back departures of star left-winger Johnny Gaudreau and hard-nosed forward Matthew Tkachuk.

Gaudreau walked out the door for Columbus as a free agent, leaving only cap space behind, while Tkachuk, after indicating he would not re-sign next summer, was dealt to Florida for star winger Jonathan Huberdeau, defenceman MacKenzie Weegar, a minor-league prospect and a lottery-protected first-round draft pick.

The departures of two U.S.-born players, four years after American collegian Adam Fox refused to sign with the Flames and went on to win a Norris Trophy elsewhere, creates some existential questions that will take some time to answer.

Do the Flames have a problem with keeping elite American players? Does it have something to do with playing in Calgary, or Alberta, or Canada? Or are the various situations completely different?

With Fox, the team exhausted all avenues in trying to get him signed and ultimately dealt him to Carolina, a swap that netted the Flames defenceman Noah Hanifin and forward Elias Lindholm. With Gaudreau, the Flames were at first understanding of his desire to play closer to his New Jersey roots after 11 years in the Calgary organization, then emotionally wounded when he decided Columbus would do just fine despite the fact it was seven hours west of his hometown.

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