Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Like I said the writing was on the wall when Conroy was dispatched to watch over the Heat. There was obvious dissatisfaction with what was going on in Abbotsford claiming otherwise is burying your head in the sand.
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I don't see how that is writing on the wall. Conroy was identified as a front-office talent and he has been groomed as such. At the beginning of this past season, Conroy was put in charge of managing the day to day affairs of the Heat. Feaster himself explained that the move was made to let Conroy gain day to day management experience and also shift Weisbrod's responsibility more to the NHL side. Made sense to me. That's how Feaster pried his trade. Many teams place their top assistant GM to manage the AHL team. Treliving managed the Coyotes farm team. If anything, the hiring of Ftorek seemed like the greater threat.
Keep in mind that this past season was really year 1 of the rebuild. So a greater focus was placed on the AHL team. Feaster and Conroy talked about this. And Ward didn't make decisions on player personnel. Weisbrod and Feaster did and then Conroy. How the AHL team is constructed is not the job of Ward. In Ward's first two years the team was in win now mode. The team had veterans like Ben Walter and Clay Wilson for depth and of course they would take away playing time from prospects. And what was a coach suppose to do? Force feed Greg Nemisz minutes he didn't deserve?