Quote:
Originally Posted by genetic_phreek
Some people are making out Treliving to be the greatest GM that got away. All owners are involved in operations to a degree, doesn't matter what business you are in because you need to protect your investment.
The narrative that Treliving had his hands tied and was a puppet for ownership is a bit much. Ownership directed him to make playoffs and there are so many ways to do so. Treliving still had to make decisions and he's made a few poor ones. He's also made a lot of good negotiations but overall we are in the position we are today is because of Treliving, good or bad.
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As a fan that believed his time was up with the Flames I can at least say he was a really good ambassador for the team and seemed like a genuinely good person. Over his time as Flames GM you can argue the Flames spent less time being a clown show than all the other Canadian organizations especially the Canucks, Oilers, Habs, Senators. This season is probably the first one where people around the league were looking at Calgary wondering what the hell was going on but that's more to do with the antics of the head coach that was hand picked for him. As I have said before if one of Sutter or Treliving had to go I'm always going to opt for the better option and to me that was Treliving by far.
Like everyone else I like Conny but I've long believed this organization has badly needed a fresh set of eyes to come in with no ties to prospects or players on the roster. Less emphasis of building out the blueline and more on adding skill throughout the forward ranks as that's what the best teams are doing. It feels like every season we are discussing the Flames having the best blue line depth in the division and it's never got the team anywhere because they always get outskilled in the playoffs and in the years they didn't make it was where the bounces didn't go their way and the offense dries up. Teams that can score goals always have a chance and I just felt Treliving spent too much assets on the blue line over his tenure while the RW was always badly neglected. Oh and hopefully someone unattached to people in the organization can do the right thing and fire everyone involved with the goaltending for the big club.