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

[Ledge And Dairy]

I don't even know why y'all are debating. If Buffalo trades their 2025 first, it will 100% have protections.

AFAIK in the NHL you can't protect a pick for multiple years but maybe I'm wrong. Where Buffalo stands right now they would want their 2026 first protected too and if they trade their 2025 1st with protection there is a very high chance that protection will kick in and push it to 2026 unprotected. That is my point.

I wonder what, if anything, it would take for Conny to pry 24 year old, 6’5”, 210 lb second-year LHD and pending RFA Mason Lohrei (4 goals and 28 points in 57 games) out of Boston? For all the Bruins players that are apparently available, he’s the only one their entire roster I’d have any interest in the Flames acquiring.

Highly unlikely. They are quite high on him

 

[Don John]

I wonder what, if anything, it would take for Conny to pry 24 year old, 6’5”, 210 lb second-year LHD and pending RFA Mason Lohrei (4 goals and 28 points in 57 games) out of Boston? For all the Bruins players that are apparently available, he’s the only one their entire roster I’d have any interest in the Flames acquiring.

What would be the Bruins motivation for moving him?

 

[Volica]

What would be the Bruins motivation for moving him?

IIRC Bruins fans were hard line stance against trading him for any of the Flames UFA's last season, and they were sniffing around a lot of our guys.

My hope for the next few days is that Conroy simply listens to what GMs are willing to do on the veterans we have. I know we're in a race, I know we're committed to competing, but I just hope that it's not like 'instant no' when someone mentions one of the older guys.

Look at the end of the day, I don't think there are many trades we could make that would move the needle enough to make us a much worse or a much better team. Trading Andersson, I don't think that makes us a bottom 5 team all of a sudden; I don't think we could get anything back in an Andersson trade that really makes all of us sit back and go 'wow'. Similarly to trading for a decent defender makes us a contender, or that trading one of our prospects (Minus Parekh) would sink this retool/rebuild.

In this league you just have to wait until general managers make stupid moves. That's it. Like it's wild to say that, but the NHL is such a high turnover league in terms of management that you just have to wait until someone gets desperate enough to do something stupid. Someone's willing to try to save their jobs on a whim, someone's willing to please their ownership group and do a 'right now' type trade.

 

[Lunatik]

AFAIK in the NHL you can't protect a pick for multiple years but maybe I'm wrong. Where Buffalo stands right now they would want their 2026 first protected too and if they trade their 2025 1st with protection there is a very high chance that protection will kick in and push it to 2026 unprotected. That is my point.

I've never heard of a rule preventing this. But then again I can't think of any trades with protections in multiple seasons. The closest I can think of is our conditional 1st in the Monahan trade.

• 2024 - If the Flames pick is 20+ Montreal can choose to take it.
• 2025 - Top 10 protected if the Panthers 1st in 2025 transfers to Calgary/#1 protected if the Panthers 1st in 2025 does not transfer to Calgary
• 2026 - If the Panthers 1st in 2025 does not transfer and Calgary's pick is 1st overall.

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

Pretty crazy terrible statistics with Rasmus on ice since the Hanifin trade on 960 this morning. Time to move on from him and recoup some assets. Signing him would be a terrible idea.

 

[Zirakzigil]

Pretty crazy terrible statistics with Rasmus on ice since the Hanifin trade on 960 this morning. Time to move on from him and recoup some assets. Signing him would be a terrible idea.

The basic numbers dont look good, but I really wonder what the deeper dive says. Zone starts, quality of competition and the likes. Its like comparing Backs to the 4th line. 4th line gets tons of offensive starts, Backs gets abused with defensive starts. Surface numbers wont look good because of that. I do think Ras has cost himself money with the lack of offensive numbers though.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

The basic numbers dont look good, but I really wonder what the deeper dive says. Zone starts, quality of competition and the likes. Its like comparing Backs to the 4th line. 4th line gets tons of offensive starts, Backs gets abused with defensive starts. Surface numbers wont look good because of that. I do think Ras has cost himself money with the lack of offensive numbers though.

I mean the eye test shows he's been good.

As for QoC he's played by far the most minutes on the team vs elite competition according to puckiq

 

[Zirakzigil]

I mean the eye test shows he's been good.

As for QoC he's played by far the most minutes on the team vs elite competition according to puckiq

Exactly. Need to compare apples to apples and not look at basic stats. Only thing I don’t like is how his offence has gone life cold. But then again so has the teams.

 

[Lunatik]

Exactly. Need to compare apples to apples and not look at basic stats. Only thing I don’t like is how his offence has gone life cold. But then again so has the teams.

I really think much of this is because Weegar and Andersson know they can't take as many offensive risks because of how shitty out blueline is overall. But you also can't take as many risks when you are playing the best players on another team or you will get burned more, so that's a double whammy for Ras.

 

[Ledge And Dairy]

Exactly. Need to compare apples to apples and not look at basic stats. Only thing I don’t like is how his offence has gone life cold. But then again so has the teams.

I don't think we can can point fingers at him when it comes to offense. Our leading scorers have 44 points that's at best 3rd on any other team in the league

 

[Zirakzigil]

I really think much of this is because Weegar and Andersson know they can't take as many offensive risks because of how shitty out blueline is overall. But you also can't take as many risks when you are playing the best players on another team or you will get burned more, so that's a double whammy for Ras.

In part. Also part due to the system. And Ras has to take responsibility for not shooting the puck.

 

[Figgy44]

Pretty crazy terrible statistics with Rasmus on ice since the Hanifin trade on 960 this morning. Time to move on from him and recoup some assets. Signing him would be a terrible idea.

Either we leverage his value and trade him because we don't trust him as the only guy on top pairing (ie: Trade for another bonafide top pairing RD and relegate Andersson to a 1B or second pairing).

Or if we keep, we add more talent at a reasonable cost so that we can lessen the load on him. (ie: Ekblad in FA to do a 1A/1B RD scenario). IIRC, there are shared criticisms on Ekblad and Andersson in how things are going with both guys. Having Ekblad and Andersson at 7.5 AAV ish isn't the worst top 4 and it won't get in the way of guys like Brewski and Parekh developing. Both guys also good styles to be on the 3rd pairing, especially if Huska decides to roll 3 lines like Sutter did to good success a few seasons ago. An idea where everyone can step up when needed, but support each other if anyone falters.

I really think much of this is because Weegar and Andersson know they can't take as many offensive risks because of how shitty out blueline is overall. But you also can't take as many risks when you are playing the best players on another team or you will get burned more, so that's a double whammy for Ras.

I'm curious on two names right now. Ekblad in FA and Severson. Both could work out at reasonable cap hits, both could bump up the talent level we need for a negligible cost (albeit not necessarily at the most desired cap hits). Ekblad at 7/7.5 ish and Severson at 6.25 isn't terrible.

Severson vs Ekblad are totally different calibre players of course. It also seems left field, but Severson's aunt is in Calgary IIRC. Huska should have familiarity with Severson from Kelowna. It's project though, but apparently Severson taking his benching like a consummate pro.

ie:

Weegar - Brewski/Parekh (?)
X/Bahl - Andersson/Ekblad/Severson
Bahl/X - Ekblad/Severson/Andersson

IMO that's a decent 3 line d corps with vets that aren't too old, but options for young guys to move up as well. But to me, it also makes me believe that Conroy isn't too optimistic with our top 4 options on LD on the farm. Depth for days though...

 

[Tkachuk Norris]

I agree there is important context there. The numbers are part due to a tough context. However, I disagree that he has looked good with the eye test. He hasn’t looked good since basically the first ten games IMO. Bahl is the one that looks good on that pair to me.

 

[RasmusAndersson]

Either we leverage his value and trade him because we don't trust him as the only guy on top pairing (ie: Trade for another bonafide top pairing RD and relegate Andersson to a 1B or second pairing).

Or if we keep, we add more talent at a reasonable cost so that we can lessen the load on him. (ie: Ekblad in FA to do a 1A/1B RD scenario). IIRC, there are shared criticisms on Ekblad and Andersson in how things are going with both guys. Having Ekblad and Andersson at 7.5 AAV ish isn't the worst top 4 and it won't get in the way of guys like Brewski and Parekh developing. Both guys also good styles to be on the 3rd pairing, especially if Huska decides to roll 3 lines like Sutter did to good success a few seasons ago. An idea where everyone can step up when needed, but support each other if anyone falters.




I'm curious on two names right now. Ekblad in FA and Severson. Both could work out at reasonable cap hits, both could bump up the talent level we need for a negligible cost (albeit not necessarily at the most desired cap hits). Ekblad at 7/7.5 ish and Severson at 6.25 isn't terrible.

Severson vs Ekblad are totally different calibre players of course. It also seems left field, but Severson's aunt is in Calgary IIRC. Huska should have familiarity with Severson from Kelowna. It's project though, but apparently Severson taking his benching like a consummate pro.

ie:

Weegar - Brewski/Parekh (?)
X/Bahl - Andersson/Ekblad/Severson
Bahl/X - Ekblad/Severson/Andersson

IMO that's a decent 3 line d corps with vets that aren't too old, but options for young guys to move up as well. But to me, it also makes me believe that Conroy isn't too optimistic with our top 4 options on LD on the farm. Depth for days though...

I really hope we don’t do something like that. We are not in a position to start throwing expensive contracts at aging dmen who are closer to middle-pairing guys than top pair guys. Ekblad also isn’t gonna take 7-7.5 mil here, which would be the equivalent of like 5.5/6 mil in Florida.

Just because we have cap space and openings on D doesn’t mean we should use them on aging vets that won’t be good enough in 3-5 years when we could actually be contenders. I’d much rather take smaller bets on younger, unproven guys via trade or FA (like Bahl and Frost) and keep the cap flexibility for when we need it down the road. I would be open to a vet LHD though (and RHD if we move Rasmus) on a 1-2 year contract to help fill the gaps in the short-term, as we did with Mantha. But that’s the most term I’d want to give to a vet middle-pairing dman.

Adding a Severson would do nothing more than keep us mediocre in the short term while hampering our cap space and roster flexibility for 3-5 years down the road when we actually need it. And handing Ekblad the massive contract it would take to land him would do the same.

 

[Mobiandi]

They need to start selling with some of these deals going down

 

[Figgy44]

I really hope we don’t do something like that. We are not in a position to start throwing expensive contracts at aging dmen who are closer to middle-pairing guys than top pair guys. Ekblad also isn’t gonna take 7-7.5 mil here, which would be the equivalent of like 5.5/6 mil in Florida.

Just because we have cap space and openings on D doesn’t mean we should use them on aging vets that won’t be good enough in 3-5 years when we could actually be contenders. I’d much rather take smaller bets on younger, unproven guys via trade or FA (like Bahl and Frost) and keep the cap flexibility for when we need it down the road. I would be open to a vet LHD though (and RHD if we move Rasmus) on a 1-2 year contract to help fill the gaps in the short-term, as we did with Mantha. But that’s the most term I’d want to give to a vet middle-pairing dman.

Adding a Severson would do nothing more than keep us mediocre in the short term while hampering our cap space and roster flexibility for 3-5 years down the road when we actually need it. And handing Ekblad the massive contract it would take to land him would do the same.

The cap is going to shoot up. A 6 mil dman is going to be how we perceive 4 mil dman today. Even if both Parekh and Brewski do great right away, we still should be mindful of having some form of training wheels RD for at least the next 2-4 seasons.

I don't fully know what the thinking process is, but our pipeline doesn't have enough talent to just shove two newbies onto the roster any time soon. We need both vets and young guys. in 3-5 years the aging vets are age 33-35.

I get the concerns on Severson. I'm just saying it's a buy low candidate based on the Carlo type rumor idea. I don't know how much further we might drop, but mediocrity wise, look at where CBJ is. Do you really think Severson does that much more to bump us up mediocrity wise than what he's done so far in CBJ?

 

[Lunatik]

Walker Duehr clears waivers, so even we didn't want him back

 

[RasmusAndersson]

The cap is going to shoot up. A 6 mil dman is going to be how we perceive 4 mil dman today. Even if both Parekh and Brewski do great right away, we still should be mindful of having some form of training wheels RD for at least the next 2-4 seasons.

I don't fully know what the thinking process is, but our pipeline doesn't have enough talent to just shove two newbies onto the roster any time soon. We need both vets and young guys. in 3-5 years the aging vets are age 33-35.

I get the concerns on Severson. I'm just saying it's a buy low candidate based on the Carlo type rumor idea. I don't know how much further we might drop, but mediocrity wise, look at where CBJ is. Do you really think Severson does that much more to bump us up mediocrity wise than what he's done so far in CBJ?

No I don’t, and if we could get Severson on a 1-2 year deal that would be ok (even though I’d still prefer to go for a younger option in the 24-27 age range). I just think we should save cap space and roster flexibility unless it’s a potential core piece.

 

[Darth Vladar]

What would be the Bruins motivation for moving him?

If you’re asking me what possible motivation the Bruins would have to move Lohrei, I’m only going by Di Marco’s (dailyfaceoff.com) tweet from the other day which suggested there aren’t too many players on the roster that Sweeney wouldn’t make available for the right price.

 

[Darth Vladar]

I agree there is important context there. The numbers are part due to a tough context. However, I disagree that he has looked good with the eye test. He hasn’t looked good since basically the first ten games IMO. Bahl is the one that looks good on that pair to me.

Thank you. l don’t know what games other people have been watching, but Raz hasn’t looked particularly great since Mantha was still playing. Save perhaps for that one game where he stood in front on like six Ovi clappers, but that was on the defensive end, and even that was something of an outlier. He often times looks lost in his own end, and his ordinarily dynamic offensive game has been anything but. As many have noted, it could have to do (at least in part) with him not being able to take as many risks, but I mean it’s almost the same exact thing with Rango up front who is typically at worst defensively adequate even when he’s not scoring but his offensive game has similarly fallen of the edge of a cliff, and he very often seems disengaged without the puck, like he’s phoning it in.

 

[Rubi]

I was hoping the Flames would start Vladar in tonight's Flyers game. The TDL is this Friday and it can't hurt to give him one more showcase game. He's been playing well lately. I want to see him traded on or before Friday. This is the last year of his contract and I don't want the Flames to re-sign him.

 

[Darth Vladar]

I was hoping the Flames would start Vladar in tonight's Flyers game. The TDL is this Friday and it can't hurt to give him one more showcase game. He's been playing well lately. I want to see him traded on or before Friday. This is the last year of his contract and I don't want the Flames to re-sign him.

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So what do you figure for next season? Cooley (on the last year of his deal) to back up Wolfy, with Ignatjew, Chechelev, and Zarubin fighting it out for the next Wranglers tandem?

 

[Figgy44]

No I don’t, and if we could get Severson on a 1-2 year deal that would be ok (even though I’d still prefer to go for a younger option in the 24-27 age range). I just think we should save cap space and roster flexibility unless it’s a potential core piece.

That's the thing, what's the cost on an age 24-27 top 4 dman? Too much.

We need to funnel those assets into age 24-27 top 6C instead. Those guys demand insane premiums and we need more than 1.

It's a conceptual idea, not a fixation on a specific player (but this player in question ticks more boxes than a complete random other player). I'm not saying it must be Severson, I'm saying someone like Severson is a value proposition that works with our situation/needs and dcorps. This allows us to focus on other serious holes on our roster.

I'd rather have something like an overpaid Severson and decent d corps (with Conroy at the helm, I'm not too worried about total mess of a cap structure) and acquiring an elite top 6 solution vs just a decent top 6 solution.

A d corps with young guys like Bahl/Parekh/Brewski/Solo/Kuznetsov vs inexpensive options for passable vets to round it out is OK IMO. It's not detrimental not to add another of Jiricek/Parekh's calibre to that future core. We have decent stuff to work with. Adding an extra elite guy to the dcorps is bonus, not necessity.

The elite level talent on the forward corps, especially with how weak the centre backbone projects to be is where there is most concern IMO.

 

[Lunatik]

So what do you figure for next season? Cooley (on the last year of his deal) to back up Wolfy, with Ignatjew, Chechelev, and Zarubin fighting it out for the next Wranglers tandem?

No.

I think we chase a mentor, I think Connie makes calls to Quick, Allen and Andersen on July 1.

 

[Rubi]

So what do you figure for next season? Cooley (on the last year of his deal) to back up Wolfy, with Ignatjew, Chechelev, and Zarubin fighting it out for the next Wranglers tandem?

That sounds about right to me. Vladar needs to go.