I think the good money is on Johnny not being upfront with the organisation.
Just from a logic perspective, Treliving is not going to come out to the media and say that Johnny wants to be here, and Edwards is not going to start making personal calls unless they believe he actually wants to stay. If they wouldn’t believe it, they wouldn’t have done it, because all it does it make them look like rubes now.
Neither Treliving nor Edwards strike me as guys who are going to risk even a little bit of reputation for media management, which is all this song and dance would have been if they didn’t believe he wanted to stay.
It’s also why I don’t believe this was necessarily Treliving’s to wear on his own. Once the owner is involved and you’re both playing from the same playbook, it’s no longer a matter of one guy not doing his job properly. If it’s on the Flames, it’s on both Treliving and Edwards (among others, likely) so I very much doubt Edwards would try to hang Treliving for it.
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