Speculation: Armchair GM 2024-25 Season, Craig Conroy's Can Do Calgary Flames

[Yepthatsme]

Pierre Lebrun:

"As I reported back in September, I believe the final three teams in the mix on Tkachuk were St. Louis, Carolina and Florida. And after making more calls, it’s apparent that the Hurricanes’ potential package — which I believe included Martin Necas — was runner-up, although it was still generally more of a futures deal, which is why the Florida package always made more sense for a Calgary team trying to win now."

If I remember correctly the rumored St. Louis package was built around Jordan Kyrou as well.

 

[Volica]

I don't think you are putting enough blame on ownership here. It's pretty well known that they constantly meddled in Tre's affairs.

Not to say that Tre is without blame, but if you think ownership would have okayed a rebuild at that point...

I think part of being a general manager of a hockey club; or a senior manager at any organization, you need to be able to convey your message through to stakeholders in an appropriate way that supports the direction you want to go in. If you can't simply and effectively paint a picture of your current direction, then you're not fit to do the job.

Based on Brad Treliving's tenure in Toronto so far, I'd argue that he's doing exactly what he was doing here; under different ownership.

 

[MakeCgyGreatAgain]

If I remember correctly the rumored St. Louis package was built around Jordan Kyrou as well.

Nope. It was actually Neighbours. St. Louis offer was putrid in comparison to the others. If I remember correctly Kyrou had already signed or agreed to his extension with St Louis and that took him out of any trade conversations. Fans and media were putting Kyrou in the Tkachuk rumours

 

[Some Other Flame]

There is no chance whatsoever that Treliving had the sole authority to give Huberdeau that specific bonus-laden contract. Virtual common sense guarantee that Edwards pushed for it given the circumstances at that juncture, i.e., two prominent stars wanting out of Calgary and the city/organization being seen as less than desirable. There was a very clear and palpable push from everyone involved to dispel that idea.

But I said it at the time, the Flames were sitting on some of the most valuable trade assets in the league that summer

40 goal "#1 centre" Elias Lindholm @ 4.75m x 2yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman Rasmus Andersson @ 4.55M x 4yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman Noah Hanifin @ 4.95M x 2yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman MacKenzie Weegar @ 3Mx 1yrs
115 point "franchise" winger Jonathan Huberdeau @ 6M x yrs

Retaining 50% on any 3 of those contracts would have meant "retooling" on easy mode.

 

[Mobiandi]

Nope. It was actually Neighbours. St. Louis offer was putrid in comparison to the others. If I remember correctly Kyrou had already signed or agreed to his extension with St Louis and that took him out of any trade conversations. Fans and media were putting Kyrou in the Tkachuk rumours

The Blues were offering us Scandella, Tarasenko and a protected 1st. It was awful. The Blues org and their fans acted like Tkachuk going to St Louis was a formality

 

[JPeeper]

There is no chance whatsoever that Treliving had the sole authority to give Huberdeau that specific bonus-laden contract. Virtual common sense guarantee that Edwards pushed for it given the circumstances at that juncture, i.e., two prominent stars wanting out of Calgary and the city/organization being seen as less than desirable. There was a very clear and palpable push from everyone involved to dispel that idea.

But I said it at the time, the Flames were sitting on some of the most valuable trade assets in the league that summer

40 goal "#1 centre" Elias Lindholm @ 4.75m x 2yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman Rasmus Andersson @ 4.55M x 4yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman Noah Hanifin @ 4.95M x 2yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman MacKenzie Weegar @ 3Mx 1yrs
115 point "franchise" winger Jonathan Huberdeau @ 6M x yrs

Retaining 50% on any 3 of those contracts would have meant "retooling" on easy mode.

Flames also don't trade our 1st with Monahan, which means we also had Monahan as a trade chip who returned a 1st, so we could have had a surplus of 2 more 1st rounders.

We could have come out with about 4+ extra 1st rounders for the past and future drafts if we kept and then dealt Monahan the year after, and traded all the pieces we got back from Florida.

We'd have had no defence at all and we'd have been fighting San Jose for Macklin last year.

 

[Figgy44]

There is no chance whatsoever that Treliving had the sole authority to give Huberdeau that specific bonus-laden contract. Virtual common sense guarantee that Edwards pushed for it given the circumstances at that juncture, i.e., two prominent stars wanting out of Calgary and the city/organization being seen as less than desirable. There was a very clear and palpable push from everyone involved to dispel that idea.

But I said it at the time, the Flames were sitting on some of the most valuable trade assets in the league that summer

40 goal "#1 centre" Elias Lindholm @ 4.75m x 2yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman Rasmus Andersson @ 4.55M x 4yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman Noah Hanifin @ 4.95M x 2yrs
Emerging top pairing defenseman MacKenzie Weegar @ 3Mx 1yrs
115 point "franchise" winger Jonathan Huberdeau @ 6M x yrs

Retaining 50% on any 3 of those contracts would have meant "retooling" on easy mode.

I'm sure Sutter would have also been opposed to a retool/rebuild.

 

[Kranix]

GMs are pretty autonomous. That's why owners flip out and fire them when they check in once a year and notice they haven't made the playoffs in a while. You have the odd figurehead like Alvin or Hughes. If you think Murray Edwards has one f***ing clue about managing a hockey roster, and was meddling with Tre, you're just gobbling fan/media hysteria, in which the Flames narrative was steeped, at the end of the Tre/Sutter era.

That's why the Flyers, a franchise also notoriously, allegedly, against rebuilding, originally let Ron Hextall start out on his 7 year rebuild plan, let him do whatever he wanted, tore the whole thing down. He kept ownership in the dark, never explained anything, and after 4.5 years of mediocrity, they were like, "what are you actually doing here? We're a bit concerned, so reassure us" and he said, "No. You'll see in year 7 when it all comes to fruition." So they fired him. They gave him the autonomy, and he never communicated his plan.

Brad Treliving is hard-wired to never rebuild. He told ownership he'd win the cup. That's why he traded a first round pick for Travis Hamonic. It has nothing to do with Murray Edwards.
He's in Toronto now, a team that was fine with rebuilding. Shanahan was fine with rebuilding. They did a massive tear down. Treliving is not going to do that.

These billionaire owners don't know anything. Has anybody seen the behind the scenes video of Kevyn Adams signing Taylor Hall? Terry Pegula is absolutely clueless. Adams says he wants to sign Taylor Hall, and the price is going to be 8 mill. Pegula says, okay, "if we sign this guy, we're trying to win the stanley cup, right?" And Adams is like...."yeeeeaah, sure thing, Mr Pegula. That's what we're doing." Pegula would have gone along either way. Sure these GMs have to get permission for big moves, but all they have to do is sell it to a billionaire who doesn't really know anything.

Owners are fine with rebuilds. They're not fine with rebuilds that don't work.

When John Bean said he's not allowed to use the word rebuild, it was because of the media hysteria around that term, the meaning of which had been totally warped. If a gm could sell ownership on a plan to get younger, because that's a path to remain competitive, an owner would go along with it.

 

[Deen]

Costco out for the year. Too bad after the progress he was making.

 

[Kahvi]

Costco out for the year. Too bad after the progress he was making.

Sucks for him, but opens a spot for maybe Pelletier.