[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Brad Treliving is definitively a mediocre/bad general manager. I'm sure I missed a few minor things and there may be some errors.

Look at 2019 and 2020. What an absolutely waste of time from a team building perspective.

Honestly I remove 2014 from the equation. He had just started in the job and Brian Burke's finger prints were all over every move we made that offseason.

So removing the minor moves let's take a look at his years, year by year.

Spoiler!

2015 Looks like a pretty good year to me and really where most of his good moves happened.

Good:
-2015 2nd round pick, 2015 3rd round pick acquired for Curtis Glencross
-2015 2nd round pick acquired for Sven Baertschi
-Garnet Hathaway signed (2 years, 690K AAV)
-Mikael Backlund (3 years, 3.575M AAV)
-Dougie Hamilton (6 years, 5.75M AAV)
-Michael Frolik (5 years, 4.3M AAV)
-Micheal Ferland (2 years, 825K AAV)
-Mark Giordano (6 years, 6.75M AAV)
- Drafted Andersson, Kylington, Mangiapane

Bad:
-Karri Ramo (1 year, 3.8M AAV)
-Lance Bouma (3 years, 2.2M AAV)

Push:
-Dougie Hamilton acquired for 2015 1st round pick, 2015 2nd round pick, 2015 2nd round pick (Not bad, but that Matt Barzal guy would look pretty sweet in red)

2016 Pretty good overall with only really Brouwer being the real bad move. Elliott was fine until the playoffs.

Good:
-Sean Monahan (7 years, 6.375M AAV)
-Johnny Gaudreau (6 years, 6.75M AAV)
-Kris Verseeg (1 year, 950K AAV)
-David Rittich signed (1 year, 925K AAV)
-2016 2nd round pick, 2018 4th round pick acquired for Jiri Hudler
-Jyrki Jokipakka, Brett Pollick, 2016 2nd round pick acquired for Kris Russel
- Drafted Tkachuk, Dube, Fox, Phillips

Bad:
-Hired Glen Gulutzan
-Mason Raymond (buyout)
-Troy Brouwer (4 years, 4.5M AAV)
-Niklas Grossman (1 year, 575K AAV)
-Brian Elliott acquired for 2016 2nd round pick, 2018 conditional pick (not met)
-Drafted Parsons

2017- Probably his worst offseason as a GM and what really set this team back IMO

Good:
-Kris Versteeg (1 year, 1.75M AAV)
-Micheal Ferland (2 years, 1.75M AAV))
-Garnet Hathaway (1 year, 650K AAV
-Sam Bennett (2 years, 1.95M AAV)
-Glen Gawdin (3 years, ELC)
-Drafted Valimaki, Ruzicka

Bad:
-Travis Hamonic, conditional 2019 4th round pick acquired for 2018 1st round pick, 2018 2nd round pick, 2019 2nd round pick
-Michael Stone acquired for 2018 5th round pick, 2017 3rd round pick
-Curtis Lazar, Mike Kostka acquired for 2017 2nd round pick, Jyrki Jokipakka
-Lance Bouma (buyout)
Michael Stone (3 years, 3.5M AAV)

Push:
-Mike Smith acquired for Brandon Hickey, Chad Johnson, 2018 3rd round pick
-Jaromir Jagr (1 year, 1M AAV)

2018Lots of good here but the bad moves were really bad and buying out Brouwer to be able to go after James Neal was crippling even though lots of people were onboard at the time.

Good:
-Elias Lindholm (6 years, 4.85M AAV)
-Noah Hanifin (6 years, 4.95M AAV)
-Derek Ryan (3 years, 3.125M AAV)
-David Rittich (1 year, 800K AAV)
-Garnet Hathaway (1 year, 850K AAV)
-Drafted Pettersen, Zavgorodniy

Bad:
-James Neal (5 years, 5.75M AAV)
-Troy Brouwer (buyout)
-Rinat Valiev, Matt Taormina acquired for Brett Kulak
-No picks in first three rounds

Push:
-Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin acquired for Dougie Hamilton, Micheal Ferland, Adam Fox
-Austin Czarnik (2 years, 1.25M AAV)

TBD:
-Mikael Backlund (6 years, 5.35M AAV)

2019

Good:
-2020 4th round pick acquired for Michael Frolik
- Drafted Pelletier, Nikolaev (jury out but looks good)

Bad:
-Michael Stone (buyout)
-Oscar Fantenberg acquired for 2020 4th round pick

Push:
-Matthew Tkachuk (3 years, 7M AAV)
-Cam Talbot (1 year, 2.75M AAV)
-Sam Bennett (2 years, 2.55M AAV)
-David Rittich (2 years, 2.75M AAV)

TBD:
-Milan Lucic (750K retained), 2020 3rd round pick acquired for James Neal

So I think the biggest concern here is that his last undisputably good year from a team building perspective was 2016.

He got off to a great start in putting the pieces together for this team in 2015 and 2016. But since then I think it's fair to say he's been average/mediocre as a GM.

I think the key is his management of the amateur scouting staff and scouts has been strong as they've done well with the picks they've had, but his ability to arm them with picks has been poor.

Pro-scouting also seems to be an issue. Outside of Frolik and Ryan we haven't really been able to sign any UFAs that can contribute, and Neal, Brouwer, and Stone were outright bad.

Identifying guys like Lindholm and Hamilton was good, but they also went after Hamonic which IMO is his biggest mistake as a GM. Wasting cap on a poor piece is one thing, but to send out a 1st and two 2nds for a guy that didn't help the team and wasn't a long term piece was horrible.

So yeah overall it's still a pretty mixed bag. Some good, some bad and overall like the rest of this organization he's been mediocre. And the alarming part is the moves seem to be on a downward trend.

I agree with a poster from earlier that said that if Treliving sticks around to manage the team this offseason then it's probably this off-season that defines his tenure and standing as a Flames GM. He can make moves to push the team forward and start them down a new path, or he can panic & make bad deals that probably cripple the franchise for the next 5 years.