[News] Flames not renewing contracts of Troy G. Ward & Robbie Ftorek

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Iceman90

Perhaps Ward is moving to the NHL?

He might get an Assistant job somewhere but really he hasn't had any big success as a head coach.

[getbak]

When was Conroy "dispatched to watch over the Heat"?

On the radio on Friday he was talking about how after Feaster and Weisbrod were let go, he had so many things on his plate, that he didn't get to spend enough time in Abbotsford, even though being the Heat's GM was supposed to be his biggest job this season.

[Stay Golden]

The Flames brass gave the impression they were pleased with Ward. I thought Ward proved that he does and did a really good job with the development of Flame draft picks into prospects and then progressing into NHL rookies.
JMO Treliving just wanted a change to somebody he has dealt with.
Not bringing Ward back is a mistake.

[kyuss275]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

The Flames brass gave the impression they were pleased with Ward. I thought Ward proved that he does and did a really good job with the development of Flame draft picks into prospects and then progressing into NHL rookies.
JMO Treliving just wanted a change to somebody he has dealt with.
Not bringing Ward back is a mistake.

Well I will say I am surprised he was not brought back, but to say its a "mistake " is a bit much. We have no idea who they are bringing in. I'll wait to see who they hire.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by getbak

When was Conroy "dispatched to watch over the Heat"?

On the radio on Friday he was talking about how after Feaster and Weisbrod were let go, he had so many things on his plate, that he didn't get to spend enough time in Abbotsford, even though being the Heat's GM was supposed to be his biggest job this season.

Beginning of August in 2013. At the time, he commented that Abby wasn't playing the same system as the NHL club and part of his role was to harmonize it.

[Stay Golden]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

Well I will say I am surprised he was not brought back, but to say its a "mistake " is a bit much. We have no idea who they are bringing in. I'll wait to see who they hire.

I get your position on this. But what word would be better suited than mistake ?
Change for the sake of change in business with no glaring reason to justify it 9 times out of 10 is a mistake.
Hartley will be next if the Flames do not get in the playoffs and that too would be a mistake.
Treliving wants his own choices, its obvious to me anyways.

[strombad]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

I get your position on this. But what word would be better suited than mistake ?
Change for the sake of change in business with no glaring reason to justify it 9 times out of 10 is a mistake.
Hartley will be next if the Flames do not get in the playoffs and that too would be a mistake.
Treliving wants his own choices, its obvious to me anyways.

Hard to reasonably say there was no reason for the change.

Most of the people here who followed the Heat really closely didn't seem all that upset about it, or shocked for that matter. It's hard to definitely say what the problems were without being on the ground floor of it, but based on Treliving's work in the AHL recently, I'd say he has a very good idea of what is going on down there.

We are currently experiencing our most bountiful prospect pool in many many years, but let's not pretend that Troy Ward is flawless or cannot be improved upon. You always want your team moving forwards and upwards, and it's entirely possible that Ward wasn't capable of assisting the future development of our most important assets to the level that is going to be necessary.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

The Flames brass gave the impression they were pleased with Ward. I thought Ward proved that he does and did a really good job with the development of Flame draft picks into prospects and then progressing into NHL rookies.
JMO Treliving just wanted a change to somebody he has dealt with.
Not bringing Ward back is a mistake.

I read somewhere that Burke had told Ward he was ready to talk about a contract extension, then Treliving comes along and things changed.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

I get your position on this. But what word would be better suited than mistake ?
Change for the sake of change in business with no glaring reason to justify it 9 times out of 10 is a mistake.
Hartley will be next if the Flames do not get in the playoffs and that too would be a mistake.
Treliving wants his own choices, its obvious to me anyways.

The only way you can call this a mistake without knowing the replacement is if Ward was the perfect coach. He was most definitely not the perfect coach and quite honestly I don't think he is as good as you are making him out to be.

[FAN]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Like I said the writing was on the wall when Conroy was dispatched to watch over the Heat. There was obvious dissatisfaction with what was going on in Abbotsford claiming otherwise is burying your head in the sand.

I don't see how that is writing on the wall. Conroy was identified as a front-office talent and he has been groomed as such. At the beginning of this past season, Conroy was put in charge of managing the day to day affairs of the Heat. Feaster himself explained that the move was made to let Conroy gain day to day management experience and also shift Weisbrod's responsibility more to the NHL side. Made sense to me. That's how Feaster pried his trade. Many teams place their top assistant GM to manage the AHL team. Treliving managed the Coyotes farm team. If anything, the hiring of Ftorek seemed like the greater threat.

Keep in mind that this past season was really year 1 of the rebuild. So a greater focus was placed on the AHL team. Feaster and Conroy talked about this. And Ward didn't make decisions on player personnel. Weisbrod and Feaster did and then Conroy. How the AHL team is constructed is not the job of Ward. In Ward's first two years the team was in win now mode. The team had veterans like Ben Walter and Clay Wilson for depth and of course they would take away playing time from prospects. And what was a coach suppose to do? Force feed Greg Nemisz minutes he didn't deserve?

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

I get your position on this. But what word would be better suited than mistake ?
Change for the sake of change in business with no glaring reason to justify it 9 times out of 10 is a mistake.
Hartley will be next if the Flames do not get in the playoffs and that too would be a mistake.
Treliving wants his own choices, its obvious to me anyways.

47.3% of all stats are made up on the spot!

But seriously, change just for the sake of change in business may not always be a great idea, but it is pretty common in sports (as you well know).

A lot of posters are saying that Ward was good, therefore this is a mistake. I agree that Ward was good. But that doesn't mean that the replacement can't be better.

Nothing wrong with them wanting their own guy in there, as long as they have a solid candidate in mind.

[Dan403]

Ward was good. Management said as much.

But the Brad's have something else in mind. Something that they believe is better than Ward.

[GreenLantern2814]

The new GM of the 27th place team in the NHL can't and shouldn't keep everyone. All the best to Ward, I enjoyed his press conferences

[calumniate]

Ward should start working for the oilers. Good job safety there!

[Yrebmi]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Ward should start working for the oilers. Good job safety there!

He can't. He never played for the Oilers.

[Hanna Sniper]

Originally Posted by Yrebmi

He can't. He never played for the Oilers.

That's easy to get around, just grow a mullet

[Hot_Flatus]

I'm sure the move may have played a role in this decision.

[FAN]

Originally Posted by Yrebmi

He can't. He never played for the Oilers.

And he has no Cup ring.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

I get your position on this. But what word would be better suited than mistake ?
Change for the sake of change in business with no glaring reason to justify it 9 times out of 10 is a mistake.

So, why are you convinced that Treliving and Pascal made this change without a "glaring reason"? Just because you don't know the reason, or because it is not prima facie obvious does not mean that no reason exists. I very seriously doubt that this was just a "change for the sake of change".

Originally Posted by Stay Golden

Treliving wants his own choices, its obvious to me anyways.

Is this a problem? I can't see how. He is the general manager; of course he is going to assemble the best personnel to see his vision through.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Coaching is a hard enough thing to evaluate for even the most educated and hard core fan. Even for the NHL team which we watch on a daily basis, it's hard to really tell (other than in some very obvious situations) the impact coaching is having because it's a second order impact. All we can really do is point to preparedness, effort, line matching and infer thoughts on how well the coach is doing.

Apply that to a minor league coach that the bulk of us never watch on a regular basis, and layer on the fact that role of a minor league coach isn't just to win games, but develop prospects for the big club (even tougher to evaluate from the stands) and it becomes nearly impossible to tell if they are doing a good job or not.

Point being, 90% of us on this board have no ability to make even an educated guess on whether this is good, bad or neutral. When that's the case, the default response tends to be one of fear of loss, worried that things might get worse vs. better with change. Kind of simple human nature.