[Rumour] Flames to name Conroy GM. Nonis in an executive role; Iginla advisor

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Also, hilarious that even a tweet mentioning something as breaking news as the next GM of the Flames still can't help but mention the Leafs.

Personally I'm excited for Treliving to be named GM of Toronto, total fumble Matthews resigning and lose another American UFA for nothing.

[edslunch]

My only concern is whether he is too nice or too loyal to players to make appropriate changes.

[Bunk]

The obvious choice to have an internal candidate. Conroy knows he won’t have independence as a decision-maker and has already accepted this fact. Fealty to Edwards’ competitive now at all costs vision. An external candidate will likely have demanded they have an actual say in how to manage the roster long term, including the idea of tearing down and rebuilding.

[Reggie Dunlop]

People are underestimating Conroy because of his nice guy image.

[Paulie Walnuts]

Don Maloney laid out very clearly we are not rebuilding not sure why people don't understand that.

This is a team that wants to make the playoffs next season.

[Ashasx]

Congrats to Craig.

I am happy for this. He was in my top 3 list at the beginning of this saga.

Most prominently, given the rumoured list of finalists for the position, I think the organization picked by far the best of the bunch.

[flambers]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Don Maloney laid out very clearly we are not rebuilding not sure why people don't understand that.

This is a team that wants to make the playoffs next season.

Oh for sure, no chance the Flames are getting approval from ownership to rebuild in my opinion

[Zamboniman]

Other GMs to Conroy over the phone: "Fine, whatever! You can have our entire top line, our first round picks for the next two years, and our best prospect, in exchange for Lewis and Ritchie. We'll retain salary. Just please, please, please can we wrap this up? We've been on the phone for five hours and I've said six words! I have things to do, dude!! My wife is pissed because I haven't answered her texts!!"

[Reggie Dunlop]

If there's a Head Coach opening for the Wranglers (assuming Mitch Love is promoted) the organization might want to look two hours east of the city and consider Ryan Papaioannou (HC of the Brooks Bandits) who's poised to win his third national championship today.

[tvp2003]

Happy for Conroy. From purely an entertainment standpoint this is a slam dunk. But I’m also excited for what he will bring, having witnessed everything that has happened in the past 10+ years.

Iggy can start off as being Assistant to the General Manager, aka Dwight Shrute (which is where Conroy started back in 2011).

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Don Maloney laid out very clearly we are not rebuilding not sure why people don't understand that.

This is a team that wants to make the playoffs next season.

Yes, and then be even more hamstrung because you can’t get value back on expiring contracts next year like you can now on players like Tanev, Backlund, Lindholm and Toffoli. But they’ll risk that to be a (likely) bubble team again next year. Definition of short-sighted.

[MegaErtz]

Originally Posted by FormerPresJamesTaylor

Huberdeau, Kardi and Weever but after that it's a decent team to step into for a new GM. Lucic and his 5.25 are done this summer, next year ALL of Backlund, Lindholm, Toffoli, Hanifin, Tanner and Zadorov are UFA's. That's a combined 27 million free next summer.

Conroy needs to make decisions now which direction his team is going, who he will bring back and who will he ship out. Yes those contract needs to be replaced but if the answer is rebuild it's not incredibly terrible. Backlund and Toffoli are two potential players to ship out, with good returns.

They need to nail those draft picks as well.

Markstrom is the worst goalie in the league and we owe him six million a year for the next three years.

[howard_the_duck]

Originally Posted by Paulie Walnuts

Don Maloney laid out very clearly we are not rebuilding not sure why people don't understand that.

This is a team that wants to make the playoffs next season.

Best laid plans. Next season they can try to win. But even as we’ve seen this off-season with the Treliving exit and subsequent Sutter firing, their plan (or lack thereof) can take a life of its own.

I’m not convinced some sort of rebuild isn’t coming beyond this season, despite the resistance from this ownership group.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by RedHawk12

Not a huge fan of the hire. Other finalists for the job were a complete joke just to make this hire seem reasonable. Bottom line is they should have interviewed better candidates.

My biggest worry is that Conroy is just a yes man to Edwards. He's been around the organization for a decade and that's how they've operated during that time.
.

Then it doesn't really matter who the next GM is, if that's the case. If Murray well and truly wants a yes-man, he's not going to go out and hire a no-man. If it's true the rumors of Murray meddling in hockey ops affairs, then this team is doomed regardless of who is the next GM. Personally if they decided Conroy was the best candidate for the job and did their due diligence, I am fine with it.

I take solace in quite a few interviews in the past where Conroy wasn't pleased with Sutter's lack of deploying young players over vets, and how he didn't like how management didn't get a good enough look at young players during pre-season. At least he's not some old OBC dinosaur. He's still young and I fully expect the Flames will have a good push for youth during his tenure.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by traptor

Tough situation to walk into to prove yourself.

Feels like he has to decide on being fully competitive next season or building for years 3-5.

Whatever choice you make, you're going to get burned at some point.

If a certain player won't re-sign (lindholm) the choice isn't even yours.

You cant let lindholm or hanifin walk. But if you go all in with long term contracts and they miss again it's disastrous.
But you dont want to punt on your first season as GM with a competitive veteran roster.

Counter- Conroy will have plenty of leash because:
Despite what some fans want, the Flames aren’t rebuilding this year
There are limited options to add, due to cap situation
If it does appear Lindholm, Hannifin or any others still want out, he has an easy explanation to ownership why to move one of these guys, which should also improve the cap.
All of the above points to the year after being the critical year. Tons of UFA players and another year of data points to decide who you can roll with.
Plus, I think they will do better with even a marginal improvement from Markstrom, Huberdeau and Kadri

[Hey Connor, It's Mess]

Awesome news! I think people will be pleasantly surprised with Conroy as GM. Theres a reason other organizations have coveted him.

[Shazam]

I think Iginla starting as an assistant coach for the Wranglers would be an excellent start.

[Kipper_3434]

Originally Posted by flambers

Oh for sure, no chance the Flames are getting approval from ownership to rebuild in my opinion

Not rebuilding doesn't mean expired assets won't get traded, and usually the returns for expiring UFA's are draft picks. Theoretically the team could flip UFA's for picks at the trade deadline, then flip those picks at the draft for cost controlled assets. It all kind of depends on how the team plays in the 1st half of the season.

[AustinL_NHL]

Originally Posted by Bluzman

Isn’t this ‘get the old gang together’ what the Oilers are mocked for?

Nah. The Oilers were a bunch of I've-already-won-multiple-times-so-obviously-we-know-exactly-what-we're-doing-and-are-going-to-do-things-our-way.

For the Flames, this would be a group of former players that are not only some of the most loved the organization has ever had, but suffered crushing defeats, never won anything, and have a burning desire to not only win, but look at things in whatever unique perspective(s) it takes to win.

Ezpez

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by MegaErtz

Markstrom is the worst goalie in the league and we owe him six million a year for the next three years.

Holy hyperbole.