I don't know why this would "haunt" the Flames or how we would be resting this on the shoulders of the Flames in general.
Treliving called Phillips up, Sutter didn't want to play him. Sutter played him sparingly, he didn't look great (in retrospect, who did?) and that was it. Conroy wanted to keep him and offered him a 2-year contract, but he was a UFA and chose elsewhere.
I feel like management did everything they could, outside of firing Sutter mid-season because he wouldn't play Matthew Phillips, to get Matthew Phillips onto the big club and to keep him in the organization.
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