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

[bettman]

Although he was much better last season, the organization had their concerns with Troy G. He was not always on the Flames program, many times he was on his own. So some members of the organization have said. New GM. New guys on the farm. Conroy who was there so much, would have had a lot of input in the decision.

[Burke Salad]

Dave King would be a great AHL coach and has ties to Treliving. Just thinking out loud.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by bettman

Although he was much better last season, the organization had their concerns with Troy G. He was not always on the Flames program, many times he was on his own. So some members of the organization have said. New GM. New guys on the farm. Conroy who was there so much, would have had a lot of input in the decision.

This decision was likely made by Treliving with input from Conroy as I doubt Pascall one day on the job would have had a lot of input in that decision.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by calumniate

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

As a non-oldboy, working for the Oilers is just shorthand for 'scapegoat.'

[Stay Golden]

Well said Cleveland Steam.

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by Burke Salad

Dave King would be a great AHL coach and has ties to Treliving. Just thinking out loud.

#### yeah. I was just reading King of Russia. Ties to Treliving and Calgary. Totally would be a good coach for the Adirondack Flames.

At the end of the book where the players are saying their goodbyes after he was let go (after a phenomenal season, made it to their version of the Cup finals) a lot of them were like "You changed my life, I'm a much better player and person now than I was before because of your coaching"

Off the top of my head some notes on King:

-He gets players to buy into a winning culture (the Magnitogorsk team were smashing their sticks and equipment in anger after a loss one night)
-He's smart with the kind of veterans he mingles in (brought in two hard working, gritty leaders)
-He's good with the players but willing to grill them if necessary

[Fire]

Originally Posted by Burke Salad

Dave King would be a great AHL coach and has ties to Treliving. Just thinking out loud.

I agree, but I think that would be beneath him at this point of his career. He deserves a job in the NHL.

[Tyler]

I think he prefers coaching Ruskies

[ricardodw]

Originally Posted by Fire

I agree, but I think that would be beneath him at this point of his career. He deserves a job in the NHL.

Hartley had a great year...... with 80% of his roster not being career NHLers with a couple of million in the bank and solid contracts that get them paid millions more no matter how they play.

He had basically the easiest job in the NHL last year motivating his players to play all out as there were only a few that weren't a few bad games from going down to play for the Heat.

This year or next when more of the Flames are all on 3+ year contracts... will be Hartley's test.... He totally failed in his first year with Bouwmeester, Iginla, Kipper , Cammalleri, Hudler, Tanguay, Wideman all being in a position where there was very little Hartley could threaten them with.

King as the Flames AHL coach would be on hot standby.

[Pierre "Monster" McGuire]

Originally Posted by 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.

Quit being so logical. It's boring to read logical, calm posts like this.

[saXon]

Originally Posted by ricardodw

Hartley had a great year...... with 80% of his roster not being career NHLers with a couple of million in the bank and solid contracts that get them paid millions more no matter how they play.

He had basically the easiest job in the NHL last year motivating his players to play all out as there were only a few that weren't a few bad games from going down to play for the Heat.

This year or next when more of the Flames are all on 3+ year contracts... will be Hartley's test.... He totally failed in his first year with Bouwmeester, Iginla, Kipper , Cammalleri, Hudler, Tanguay, Wideman all being in a position where there was very little Hartley could threaten them with.

King as the Flames AHL coach would be on hot standby.

Hartley was the new kid in town with a very veteran roster that were set in their ways and were given anything they asked for. Hartley's boss was also the farthest thing from a hockey mind.

So with that tandem, who's going to back him up? If he loses the room, he's worthless in the position and loses his job.

FFWD to a year later and most of those vets have been shipped out, there's new hockey blood upstairs, and a new addendum added to the systems: Play your ass off, or you don't play.

If Hartley is still kicking around 3 years from now, and the big contracts are in, the memo remains the same. Players won't be running this team again any time soon.

[Johnny Rotten]

Originally Posted by Burke Salad

Dave King would be a great AHL coach and has ties to Treliving. Just thinking out loud.

I think he'd be a good coach also, but I don't know if he'd want to move to Glen Fàlls from Arizona-I think he lives there most of the time if I remember right. Also, I don't know if he'd like th e bus rides.

Hard to find someone with his experience though.

[sureLoss]

Ward on the Fan 960 talking about his split with the Flames:

http://pmd.fan960.com/audio_on_deman...-Interview.mp3

[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by Johnny Rotten

I think he'd be a good coach also, but I don't know if he'd want to move to Glen Fàlls from Arizona-I think he lives there most of the time if I remember right. Also, I don't know if he'd like th e bus rides.

Hard to find someone with his experience though.

I've never been much of a Dave King fan. His teams always seem to lack creativity.

[Enoch Root]

I hope they have someone in mind from HC. I would be fine with Dave King except my concern would be that he would become a primary candidate to be the next Flames coach and I want no part of that.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Ward on the Fan 960 talking about his split with the Flames:

http://pmd.fan960.com/audio_on_deman...-Interview.mp3

Wow. Such a good guy. He'll land on his feet for sure

[Vulcan]

I would have liked for him to give his take on why Irving went into the crapper. My thoughts are that with the lockout, he was unprepared when sent back to Abbotsford but it's still kind of perplexing.

[Enoch Root]

Well, one of the reasons, arguably, was that Ward refused to play him and went with the hot hand (Taylor), despite the fact that Irving was the only one with a Flames contract.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Well, one of the reasons, arguably, was that Ward refused to play him and went with the hot hand (Taylor), despite the fact that Irving was the only one with a Flames contract.

Well yeah, Ward refused to play Irving because he was awful or was he awful because Ward refused to play him. Anyways it was confusing that our star young goalie's game suddenly went south. I agree though going with the hot hand wasn't in the best interests of the Flames, so that could be part of the reason Ward is gone.

Myself, I wasn't a Ward fan but I didn't think he was awful either, so thinking they can do better is a good option.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

Well yeah, Ward refused to play Irving because he was awful or was he awful because Ward refused to play him. Anyways it was confusing that our star young goalie's game suddenly went south. I agree though going with the hot hand wasn't in the best interests of the Flames, so that could be part of the reason Ward is gone.

Myself, I wasn't a Ward fan but I didn't think he was awful either, so thinking they can do better is a good option.

Irving played very well in his stint with the Flames, IMO. And he was called up because of his strong play.

When he went back down, he rode the pine. Then he had some personal issues. By the time he got a chance to play regularly again, he wasn't the same.

So it was Ward refusing to play him THEN he 'was awful'