Pre draft Q&A with Conroy

[sureLoss]

Conroy Q&A:

http://thehockeywriters.com/qa-catch...-craig-conroy/

CM: You attended the NHL Draft Combine last week. Is there any player trait you value over others?

Conroy: We look at hockey sense here with us. I mean, at the combine when we go in and talk to the kids – I’ll be honest this year at the combine the kids were the best yet. I don’t know if the agents are telling them now to go in and just be yourself. I think for a few years there I’d go in and everything was “I’m a two-way centre, I play 200 feet, I do this” – Really? That’s how scouts talk. This year it was what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Who are your comparables? It was like ‘boom, boom, boom’. They had all the answers. This year there was more personality, more laughing. The kids came in and it’s not that they were more honest – but they seemed to have their guard down a little bit and that was to a man. They were themselves which was good to see.

CM: There’s been some talk recently about the third and fourth overall pick being available. Is moving up (or down) something that’s seriously being considered or are you happy with standing pat at six?

Conroy: Obviously Brad (Treliving) is trying to move up and everyone is hearing about that, and people are calling us asking, “would you be willing to move down?” There’s the top 3 guys, but as you move down there’s probably about six to seven guys that we feel very comfortable with drafting depending on who’s there at six. That’s what happens when you’re at six, you don’t know who’s going to be there. Kind of like when we got Monahan. We liked him higher than that, and depending on how this (draft) works out maybe someone who we have higher will fall to us at six.

We are pretty happy standing pat. Obviously Brad likes to make the phone calls, but especially because Edmonton and Vancouver are at four and five it’s always more difficult when you’re dealing with West teams. We are excited about who we can get at six. You’re going to get a great player, and who knows who will turn out to be the best player from the draft? Time always tells.

CM: Where did you have Monahan ranked?

Conroy: I think we had Monahan at four on the list. Because we had Seth Jones, MacKinnon as one-two; I forget who we had first. Then we had Barkov, Monahan, Drouin. I would have been happy with any of them, but I’m pumped we got Monahan. (smiles)

CM: As you mentioned, the Flames have three second round picks in this year’s draft. What is the level of talent available in the second round this year and what type of players do you hope to get with those picks?

Conroy: We feel like we’re going to get some good players. Is it as deep as some of the other drafts? No. But we have some guys we really like that we think might be available. What it allows us to do is that if we really like one of those guys, maybe we can move two of those picks to move up a little bit. Say there’s a guy we like that falls out of the first round and is still there; it could be an option for us. When you have picks that close together you actually can move up. If there’s a guy we love and we’ve got to have him, we may use those two picks and move up. Or it could be that we are in a position where we say “hey, we like the next 10 guys on our list about the same, there’s no one head and shoulders above anyone” and we just stand pat and make the picks.

CM: There’s a few guys looking to make the jump to the NHL in the Flames system. Poirier, Jankowski and Wotherspoon come to mind. Of the young guys who do you see as having the biggest impact on the team next season?

Conroy: Shinkaruk because he has that type of pace, but I expect Poirier to make some big jumps. You know what, I went down at the end of the year to watch Jankowski and he was excellent. I only saw two games at the end of the season (for the Stockton Heat) but I walked out of the games and thought he was our best forward in both games; and that’s promising. You know, we’ll see how it goes through camp and it was just a couple of games but I was really excited with his play.

So those are the type of things that make you take pause (when looking at free agency) and you know what? There’s opportunity. I think when young kids take a look at our team – hey, they know our cap situation – I think they say, “hey, this is my opportunity to make the NHL and I’m going to come in great shape and I’m going to be ready, because they can’t go and sign a guy for $7 million on the wing. They’re going to have to give us a chance and I’m going to prove that I’m a NHL player.” I think it’s a great thing for our young kids. You know, if I was a young player this is the kind of opportunity I would be looking for.

Also talks about chasing UFAs, acquiring goaltender by trade, etc... a good read

[JiriHrdina]

Hmm fascinating to read the order from the Monny draft. Sounds like
1. Mackinnon
2. Jones
3. Barkov
4. Monahan

Then assume:
5. Drouin
6. Lindholm

So getting Monahan where they did was quite fortunate.
I think that's a pretty honest answer from him too. He's not saying "Monahan was our #1 guy!!!" he's giving a pretty believable answer on where they had him.

[StrykerSteve]

He texted Jay (Feaster) right before the draft and said “I’m ready to be a Flame”. Jay says to me, “Hey, look at this. We are getting Monahan”. I said, “Yeah, well I doubt it but at least he’s thinking the right way!”

Regarding Monahan before his draft.

[btimbit]

Great read, thanks for sharing.

Loved the bit at the end about this likely being a very busy week, not just with the draft, but hinting at a goalie trade, if it were to happen, would likely be very soon

Edit: Oh, I think that was the writers footnote, not an answer from Conroy.

[Table 5]

I love Conroy interviews. He's a guy who always gives you some good nuggets (and unlike Burke, you can actually kind of believe him).

[1qqaaz]

How can Conroy forget who they had number one? That's a pretty huge detail in terms of the 2013 draft. Maybe it was very close, and they flipped on Jones/MacKinnon right to the end.

Or maybe he's just adding a grey area, just in case.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

How can Conroy forget who they had number one? That's a pretty huge detail in terms of the 2013 draft. Maybe it was very close, and they flipped on Jones/MacKinnon right to the end.

Feaster said he offered our 3 1sts for MacKinnon. So it's pretty safe to assume it was him.

Conroy must have just forgotten. And he was probably more focused on who we would likely be getting.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

How can Conroy forget who they had number one? That's a pretty huge detail in terms of the 2013 draft. Maybe it was very close, and they flipped on Jones/MacKinnon right to the end.

I suspect they had Jones maybe ahead in a tie breaker on the official list, but they really wanted that #1 center to kick-start the rebuild (remember that was only a few months after the ROR thing got nixed) and would have taken McKinnon.

[Poe969]

Conny is just a guy that everyone seems to like. You can almost hear him smile while reading his interviews. He's a guy I'm really glad is part of the management team just because he seems to be so positive and easy to talk to.

[Vulcan]

Conroy: Probably the day we drafted Monahan. He texted Jay (Feaster) right before the draft and said “I’m ready to be a Flame”. Jay says to me, “Hey, look at this. We are getting Monahan”. I said, “Yeah, well I doubt it but at least he’s thinking the right way!”. So that’s kind of a nice little story.

I think with the feedback players and agents get from the teams, that they have a pretty good idea of where they will go and thus who will draft them. Sounds obvious but I'm thinking they have a better info on the other teams plans than the teams involved know about the other teams.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by Poe969

Conny is just a guy that everyone seems to like. You can almost hear him smile while reading his interviews. He's a guy I'm really glad is part of the management team just because he seems to be so positive and easy to talk to.

For sure, you just picture his smile whenever reading a quote. Love that the writer even included (laughs) in his quotes, because you just know that's exactly how the conversation went. Just so happy and enthusiastic about everything. How can anyone not love the guy

[FBI]

Is that a suttle shot at Hartley the fact that he said you have to be around the coach all the time and you have to get along?

[activeStick]

This is a quote that calms me a bit:

"There’s opportunity. I think when young kids take a look at our team – hey, they know our cap situation – I think they say, “hey, this is my opportunity to make the NHL and I’m going to come in great shape and I’m going to be ready, because they can’t go and sign a guy for $7 million on the wing . "

It could be misdirection but probably more likely that Conroy let it slip because he just talks too much!

I'll be happy anyways if the Flames don't sign a guy for $7M.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by FBI

Is that a suttle shot at Hartley the fact that he said you have to be around the coach all the time and you have to get along?

Nope.

[Vinny01]

I really like hearing that both Monahan and Bemnett wanted to be drafted by the Flames. I believe it was both their first choice. I remember when Bennett was picked by the Flames and his Grandma said "you got the team you wanted"!

Love having Conroy in the organization

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by FBI

Is that a suttle shot at Hartley the fact that he said you have to be around the coach all the time and you have to get along?

I doubt it, if anything maybe a subtle shot at someone else they interviewed and didn't like as much

[Split98]

Originally Posted by 1qqaaz

How can Conroy forget who they had number one? That's a pretty huge detail in terms of the 2013 draft. Maybe it was very close, and they flipped on Jones/MacKinnon right to the end.

Or maybe he's just adding a grey area, just in case.

They didn't have the #1 pick, so they probably didn't waste too much time talking about Jones vs MacKinnon

[tvp2003]

He texted Jay (Feaster) right before the draft and said “I’m ready to be a Flame”. Jay says to me, “Hey, look at this. We are getting Monahan”. I said, “Yeah, well I doubt it but at least he’s thinking the right way!”

Connie is becoming quite the good luck charm on draft day

[hockey.modern]

Tkachuk said he really enjoyed his interview with Calgary because of how relaxed it was as compared to other teams. Gotta think it was because of Conny