[sureLoss]

Conroy Q&A:

http://thehockeywriters.com/qa-catch...-craig-conroy/

CM: You attended the NHL Draft Combine last week. Is there any player trait you value over others?

Conroy: We look at hockey sense here with us. I mean, at the combine when we go in and talk to the kids – I’ll be honest this year at the combine the kids were the best yet. I don’t know if the agents are telling them now to go in and just be yourself. I think for a few years there I’d go in and everything was “I’m a two-way centre, I play 200 feet, I do this” – Really? That’s how scouts talk. This year it was what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Who are your comparables? It was like ‘boom, boom, boom’. They had all the answers. This year there was more personality, more laughing. The kids came in and it’s not that they were more honest – but they seemed to have their guard down a little bit and that was to a man. They were themselves which was good to see.

CM: There’s been some talk recently about the third and fourth overall pick being available. Is moving up (or down) something that’s seriously being considered or are you happy with standing pat at six?

Conroy: Obviously Brad (Treliving) is trying to move up and everyone is hearing about that, and people are calling us asking, “would you be willing to move down?” There’s the top 3 guys, but as you move down there’s probably about six to seven guys that we feel very comfortable with drafting depending on who’s there at six. That’s what happens when you’re at six, you don’t know who’s going to be there. Kind of like when we got Monahan. We liked him higher than that, and depending on how this (draft) works out maybe someone who we have higher will fall to us at six.

We are pretty happy standing pat. Obviously Brad likes to make the phone calls, but especially because Edmonton and Vancouver are at four and five it’s always more difficult when you’re dealing with West teams. We are excited about who we can get at six. You’re going to get a great player, and who knows who will turn out to be the best player from the draft? Time always tells.

CM: Where did you have Monahan ranked?

Conroy: I think we had Monahan at four on the list. Because we had Seth Jones, MacKinnon as one-two; I forget who we had first. Then we had Barkov, Monahan, Drouin. I would have been happy with any of them, but I’m pumped we got Monahan. (smiles)

CM: As you mentioned, the Flames have three second round picks in this year’s draft. What is the level of talent available in the second round this year and what type of players do you hope to get with those picks?

Conroy: We feel like we’re going to get some good players. Is it as deep as some of the other drafts? No. But we have some guys we really like that we think might be available. What it allows us to do is that if we really like one of those guys, maybe we can move two of those picks to move up a little bit. Say there’s a guy we like that falls out of the first round and is still there; it could be an option for us. When you have picks that close together you actually can move up. If there’s a guy we love and we’ve got to have him, we may use those two picks and move up. Or it could be that we are in a position where we say “hey, we like the next 10 guys on our list about the same, there’s no one head and shoulders above anyone” and we just stand pat and make the picks.

CM: There’s a few guys looking to make the jump to the NHL in the Flames system. Poirier, Jankowski and Wotherspoon come to mind. Of the young guys who do you see as having the biggest impact on the team next season?

Conroy: Shinkaruk because he has that type of pace, but I expect Poirier to make some big jumps. You know what, I went down at the end of the year to watch Jankowski and he was excellent. I only saw two games at the end of the season (for the Stockton Heat) but I walked out of the games and thought he was our best forward in both games; and that’s promising. You know, we’ll see how it goes through camp and it was just a couple of games but I was really excited with his play.

So those are the type of things that make you take pause (when looking at free agency) and you know what? There’s opportunity. I think when young kids take a look at our team – hey, they know our cap situation – I think they say, “hey, this is my opportunity to make the NHL and I’m going to come in great shape and I’m going to be ready, because they can’t go and sign a guy for $7 million on the wing. They’re going to have to give us a chance and I’m going to prove that I’m a NHL player.” I think it’s a great thing for our young kids. You know, if I was a young player this is the kind of opportunity I would be looking for.

Also talks about chasing UFAs, acquiring goaltender by trade, etc... a good read