Calgary Flames General Manager Ranking - #7

[Bingo]

1. Cliff Fletcher
2. Brad Treliving
3. Al Coates
4. Darryl Sutter
5. Brian Burke
6. Jay Feaster

[foofighter15]

#AnybodyButRisebrough

[Sylvanfan]

On one hand I think Risebrough had a really thankless task of tearing down the iconic cup winning team, trying to still be competitive, but slash costs. But the Gilmour trade was lousy, and his coaching was worse.

[btimbit]

Do I have to choose? Sigh.

I guess Button here

[agulati]

Just following the crowd think on this one. They were both GMs before my flames fandom.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Risebrough must be ranked last.

3 words: Gilmour for Leeman.

[getbak]

Sorry, Doug, loved you as a player, but as a GM ...

[Bingo]

Will say this ... Craig Button was a class act.

He was the GM just before I had kids and had my life get much busier. In those days I had the press pass and was in the dressing room from time to time. I was in a scrum and was asking a question when Dowbiggen cut me off to ask a different question. Button stopped him mid sentence and looked at me saying "I believe you were asking a question?"

Class act.

[FireGilbert]

Let's get out and vote!
Let's make our voices heard!
We've been given the right to choose
between a ###### and a turd

It's democracy in action
so put your freedom to the test!
A big fat turd or a stupid ######
Which do you like best?

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Craig Button had some decent trades, Conroy for Stillman was an obvious win in retrospect, and one he was roasted for at the time. Other than that he sold high on Morris, was able to get value for Brathwaite/Thachuk in Turek. His massive misstep in reacquiring MacAmmond at the trade deadline sealed his fate though.

Risebrough had absolutely no good trades, even giving away players who would have successful careers for nothing (Shevla)

[Rutuu]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Will say this ... Craig Button was a class act.

He was the GM just before I had kids and had my life get much busier. In those days I had the press pass and was in the dressing room from time to time. I was in a scrum and was asking a question when Dowbiggen cut me off to ask a different question. Button stopped him mid sentence and looked at me saying "I believe you were asking a question?"

Class act.

100% not surprised Dowbiggen cut you off.

[iamca]

TBQH, the Calgary Flames have had too many bad to mediocre General Managers and Head Coaches.

These polls have made me realize that there is a big drop-off after our top 2 to 3 in each category... yeesh.

[The Original FFIV]

Voted Riser. No arguing that Gilmour for Leeman was horrible and the worst trade in Flames history. However, rookie GMs make mistakes and when we look past that, some decent moves were made

Matteau for Yawney
Ranheim Suter T. Drury for Nylander, Patrick Zalapski
Vernon for Chiasson
MacInnis and a 4th for Housey and 2 2nds (one was used to draft Begin)
Drafted Cory Stillman, Sandy McCarthy, German Titov, Chris Clark, Denis Gauthier

He was put in a no win situation where he had to cut payroll and was rushed into a position too soon. Our dollar was in the tank and for context this is the era where Quebec and Winnipeg relocated as a result. Would have benefited with a more senior advisor to help him navigate the trade market.

I never thought I would defend risebrough but his tear down of vets is less egregious than the gutting of a young core that Button presided over. Gilmour for Leeman was the single worst trade in our history, but dealing Giguere, Savard and releasing St Louis set this team back further as this was the young core that could have set the team up for success. And you could argue Riser drafted better than Button, which was supposed to be his calling card. And letting Jaret Stoll go back into draft after screwing up on an aborted trade with leafs. Would have helped our center depth a bit.

[FlatLandFlamesFan]

How about NO! these names bring back awful memories

[1991 Canadian]

I feel a bit bad for Button. I still think he’s the worst, but I think the circumstances surrounding his time as GM make him look a lot worse than he actually was.

From a prospect standpoint, he inherited next to nothing. Look at the 1997, 1998, 1999 drafts. Those are the players making up most of the Flames prospect base when he took over. When Blair Betts has the most points / games played out of 3 drafts…. yikes. Buttons drafts weren’t great either, but he at least found some NHL players who had decent careers. It hasn’t been brought up that often in these rankings, but the players/prospects that GMs inherit have a big impact on how we perceive them. I guarantee we’d look at Treliving a lot differently if he inherited Fata and Saprykin instead of Gaudreau and Monahan.

From a financial resource standpoint, there is a good chance the 2000-2002 Flames had the lowest budget in the league. I remember an interview with Giguere where he mentioned that the Flames were so broke in that era that they didn’t have an AHL goaltending coach.

This said, most of his moves as GM were still awful. And he deserves to be last.