[News] Conroy Press Conference: UFAs could not be re-signed

[Hackey]

Originally Posted by Fourteen FTW

This sounds promising to me. We could be VERY competitive next year if we can sign a few of the right ufa’s

Murray?

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Not disagreeing with your post but I sure hope the Flames have a tracking system in place so that they can review past decisions and justifications from all scouts and management and aren't relying on memories.

I am sure they do, but I doubt a GM is going to sit there and go through the last 10 seasons' worth of discussion about who was right and wrong how many times about prospects both inside and outside of the organization.


I just think there is value in a GM who knows that they should put a little more weight on a particular scout's opinion about a certain type of prospect, and what have perhaps been some of the limitations in the past on the scouting department.

[CFO]

OK needs to extend with the flames. If he walks and chooses elsewhere it looks extremely bad on him

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I was confused by the Giordano thing. Didn't we lose him because we exposed him in the Seattle draft? I can't remember the Brodie thing, but it's not like we got nothing for Gio... we got a protected D slot for him.

You still could have traded him or someone else before the expansion draft and got something for him instead of just losing him for free. Everyone knew the expansion draft was coming and knew their protection situation.

[DeluxeMoustache]

I am impressed with Conroy’s work.

Trying to re-sign Hanifin? Sure, he’s a good player. The price matters, and UFAs can pick their destination, and they couldn’t come to mutually agreeable terms to keep him here. Off he goes, converted to assets.

Picking players with upside, who are buried on deep teams, can be very rewarding

Tremendous first year on the job imo

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

You still could have traded him or someone else before the expansion draft and got something for him instead of just losing him for free. Everyone knew the expansion draft was coming and knew their protection situation.

So you get little in a trade, and then you lose someone else (likely Kylington)

they were a victim of numbers

[Freeway]

Originally Posted by D as in David

Not disagreeing with your post but I sure hope the Flames have a tracking system in place so that they can review past decisions and justifications from all scouts and management and aren't relying on memories.

They definitely do this.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

You still could have traded him or someone else before the expansion draft and got something for him instead of just losing him for free. Everyone knew the expansion draft was coming and knew their protection situation.

Yes, and everyone had three defencemen that they would have protected ahead of a 37-year-old Giordano. Nobody was giving up any meaningful assets for a player they were going to expose anyway.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Zary's-Mustache

Yeah Conroy definitely being nice when he says "tried to sign them".

What he means is we offered what we thought was fair market value and they were out of whack with their demand.

In other words on his own terms.

Exactly, like I had said there was never any increase in money offered to these guys, the contracts were left on the table and you can take it or you can go.

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

You still could have traded him or someone else before the expansion draft and got something for him instead of just losing him for free. Everyone knew the expansion draft was coming and knew their protection situation.

We didn’t lose him “for free”. We lost him in an expansion draft, like everyone else did. How can you complete that post with that last sentence and not have it click for you?

[Ferarri]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Exactly, like I had said there was never any increase in money offered to these guys, the contracts were left on the table and you can take it or you can go.

Which is 100% the right thing to do. Issue is being a small market Canadian team, do you need to overpay to keep people? Not saying that I would do it but for UFA’s getting similar contracts in places like Vegas, New York, Los Angeles etc sort of makes the decision easy for them.

[868904]

Originally Posted by Hackey

Murray?

Hahaha. I mean, would you rather we have an owner who doesn’t want to sign free agents and spend to the cap?

[1_Flames_Fan]

I'm booing Hanifin whenever he's back. Sounds like him and his agent screwed the Flames out of a better return. I'm glad guys that don't want to be here are gone. Now it's time for other guys who are going to get an opportunity to step up their game.

[Fan69]

I like the fact that if the sticking point was mercer its clear that Conroy understands we need a number one center

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by 1_Flames_Fan

I'm booing Hanifin whenever he's back. Sounds like him and his agent screwed the Flames out of a better return.

Kinda hard to be mad at players from using the contract terms that they earned and that this team signed him to.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

Kinda hard to be mad at players from using the contract terms that they earned and that this team signed him to.

Which contract terms were those? Hanifin's limited NTC did not come into play here.

No term in his contract allowed his agent to try to force a trade to a team of his choosing by telling people he wouldn't sign anywhere else.

[Lanny'sDaMan]

Originally Posted by 1_Flames_Fan

I'm booing Hanifin whenever he's back. Sounds like him and his agent screwed the Flames out of a better return. I'm glad guys that don't want to be here are gone. Now it's time for other guys who are going to get an opportunity to step up their game.

I won't boo him for the simple reason is he didn't pull a Lindholm. He played hard, and did the best he could as a player during his time here, without pouting and dragging his heels. I respect that. All the rumours about his agent messing with the trades are just that. Rumours.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

We didn’t lose him “for free”. We lost him in an expansion draft, like everyone else did. How can you complete that post with that last sentence and not have it click for you?

There were worse defenseman protected by other teams. Yes.. You were going to lose someone, but you could have landed something for Giordano at that trade deadline and not lost him for free. Who knows who they lose otherwise... I'm explaining Conroy including him in his comments of guys they lost for free.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

There were worse defenseman protected by other teams.

None of them were 37 years old and a year away from the end of their contracts.

Yes.. You were going to lose someone, but you could have landed something for Giordano at that trade deadline and not lost him for free.

The trouble with trading Giordano at that deadline is cap tagging. Whoever acquired him would have been required to have the cap space for his entire $6,750,000 cap hit the following season, even though they planned to expose him in the expansion draft and expected to lose him. It wasn't as simple as acquiring a player on an expiring contract. Nobody was giving up assets for a 37-year-old player with term and a high salary in an expansion year.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

None of them were 37 years old and a year away from the end of their contracts.



Then you lose a younger player for free instead.

Which they knew going in.

They should’ve tried to trade Gio for something. Like two 2nds, the way Seattle did at the following deadline.

But they didn’t make the smart play for organization.

Conroy so far has made nothing but smart plays. He’s gotten good if unspectacular value for his UFAs, who frankly are all defined by being “good, if unspectacular.”

Sharangovich, Kuzmenko and Mangiapane are all UFA after next year - either Sharangovich resigns to a fair value deal and plays alongside Huberdeau for the duration of his contract, or he’s traded for a 1st + at the deadline.

Kuzmenko is probably worth at least what Tarasenko got the Senators - a 3rd and a 4th.

Mangiapane likely gets you a 2nd and 3rd, maybe more if he’s having a good contract year.

Plus whatever they move Markstrom for.

Then you’ve got Rasmus coming due the following year, and he either signs for good value or you trade a premier piece for minimum a 1st and a 2nd.

Very likely they end up coming away from next deadline with at least one extra 1st and multiple 2nds, and it’s entirely possible they could have upwards of eight 1st round picks over the next three years.

You can reshape an organization a lot of different ways with that much capital.

And you can spend on things like trading up for Tij Iginla.