Rank the Flames GM's

[Otto-matic]

With all the love Brad has been getting lately, I thought it would be fun to rank the Flames all time GM's.

Cliff Fletcher 1972–May 16, 1991
Doug Risebrough May 16, 1991 – November 3, 1995
Al Coates November 3, 1995 – April 11, 2000
Craig Button June 6, 2000 – April 11, 2003
Darryl Sutter April 11, 2003 – December 28, 2010
Jay Feaster December 28, 2010 – December 12, 2013
Brian Burke December 12, 2013 – April 28, 2014
Brad Treliving April 28, 2014 – Present

[Finger Cookin]

Risebrough's the worst. Fletcher's the best. Sutter was a better coach than GM. Treliving is on the fast track to being the best GM of the cap era.

[skudr248]

I will wait and hold out on saying for another couple weeks. I wanna see what happens from July 1st - July 30thish

[MarchHare]

Too early to rank Treliving at this point. Let's not forget how everyone here thought Sutter was an absolute genius back in 2009 for locking up all of Iginla, Kipprusoff, Regehr, Phaneuf, Langkow, Jokinen, and Bouwmeester. Less than a year later, we all thought he'd completely lost his mind.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Too early to rank Treliving at this point. Let's not forget how everyone here thought Sutter was an absolute genius back in 2009 for locking up all of Iginla, Kipprusoff, Regehr, Phaneuf, Langkow, Jokinen, and Bouwmeester. Less than a year later, we all thought he'd completely lost his mind.

In Sutter's defense, there were issues with the team that extended well beyond what he was doing.

Scouting/Drafting was a mess, and he had started fixing it. (Giordano, Bouma, Brodie, Backlund, Ferland, Arnold, Ortio are all from when he was GM though. So was Erixon, who on paper was a good pick even if he didn't pan out).

Cap management was a brand new thing and there was no "model to follow" like there is now with Chicago.

Langkow's injury was probably the one thing that buried us, because then, as now, getting a true #1C was nearly impossible via trade or free agency, and we never drafted high enough.

[Tyler]

Al Coates also had a ton of external factors outside his control to content with (falling CDN dollar, threats of the team moving, no salary cap, etc)

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Al Coates also had a ton of external factors outside his control to content with (falling CDN dollar, threats of the team moving, no salary cap, etc)

Coates was in a no-win situation and all things considered I think he did a decent job. Drafting wasn't great under him but it's hard to say how much of that was on him as there were rumours of too many cooks in the kitchen especially when it came to the draft.

[mhsyyc]

Don't know how you can really assess this given the cap world is so much different than the non-cap world.

Having said that, and given this is the internet where anything is possible, here are my thoughts: Cliff Fletcher is hands down the best GM we've ever had. He was the GM in place when we went to two Cups and won one.

The others, with the exception of Tree, did not adapt well to the circumstances in which they found themselves. You can always say "this guy had this going on and so it was hard" but so what? Everyone faces obstacles. You're not judged on the obstacles you face but in how you face them and adapt. I don't think we've had many guys who've adapted well.

[Hackey]

Definitely hard to rank GMS from different eras just like it is with players. I'm just so glad Treliving and Burke are now running the show. Feaster made some good moves but I always felt uneasy with him steering the ship. So far I have been extremely impressed with Treliving and hopefully this is only the beginning of many great things to come.

[Buff]

I wouldn't rank Treliving yet. He has been on the job for only a year so we don't know how he will do in 2,3,4 or 10 years from now, if he lasts that long.

I also wouldn't rank Burke because he only was interim for a few months.

Fletcher #1
Sutter/Coates/Feaster is a wash.
Risebrough
Button

[Dion]

Fletcher is clearly the #1 GM

During Cliff's eleven-year regime with the Flames, his teams made the playoffs sixteen straight seasons and they finished first in their division in 1987-88, 1988-89 and 1989-90. In 1988-89, under Cliff Fletcher, the Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup; the only such celebration won by the franchise to date.

Two of Fletcher's key acquisitions while with the Flames were his 1981 trade of Bobby MacMillan and Don Lever for future Hall of Famer Lanny McDonald as well as his trade for Doug Gilmour, Mark Hunter, Steve Bozek and Michael Dark for Mike Bullard, Craig Coxe and Tim Corkey on September 8, 1988. In 1988-89, the season Calgary won the Stanley Cup, McDonald served as team captain, Gilmour exploded with 22 playoff points and Hunter served as one of the club's premier checkers and enforcers.

http://www.legendsofhockey.net/Legen...00401&page=bio

[OzSome]

Fletcher is #1 for sure. Risebrough ruined the team so he is ranked last to me.

[Dime_On_Flames]

Fletcher
Treliving
.
.
.
Sutter
Risebrough

[Mister Yamoto]

Fletcher
Sutter
Coates
Button
Risebrough
Feaster

Burke/Treliving is off to a pretty good start.

[CSharp]

Cliff Fletcher at the top
Everyone in the middle.
Doug Risebrough at the very very very bottom (no one can be this bad!!!)

The only reason Sutter is not listed at the bottom with Risebrough is because he made some pretty good trades in 2004 that got the Flames into the playoffs. Otherwise, after a couple of years after that, he's got to be one of the worst GM for drafting a guy like Chucko and trading Phaneuf for garbage. Didn't he learn from Risebrough?

[codynw]

Treliving

The rest

[CSharp]

Originally Posted by Mister Yamoto

Fletcher
Sutter
Coates
Button
Risebrough
Feaster <------ You've gotta be kiddin'!!!!

Burke/Treliving is off to a pretty good start.

See the red

[Geeoff]

Hard to rank Treliving. He looks great so far but Darryl Sutter got off to a great start, as well.

[Stay Golden]

Fletcher
Coates
Sutter
Feaster
Risebrough
A distant worst...
Button

Treliving could slot in eventually at 3 the way he is going so far.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Too early to rank Treliving at this point. Let's not forget how everyone here thought Sutter was an absolute genius back in 2009 for locking up all of Iginla, Kipprusoff, Regehr, Phaneuf, Langkow, Jokinen, and Bouwmeester. Less than a year later, we all thought he'd completely lost his mind.

The worst part of Sutter may well have been how he managed the coaches. Firing himself was probably the worst choice. Jim Playfair may not have been the best choice, but firing him for Keenan was a terrible move that no one else would have likely made. Hiring his brother was a bold move, so i don't really blame him too much for that, but it sure didn't work out at all for reasons he was probably afraid of when he first considered it.

I also think he was a better gm when he was a coach, and think he made better decisions about his players.