Prospect Info: Jakob Pelletier, Left Wing, 26th Overall

[Backlund]

The organizational toxicity stemmed from not having a GM who had Sutter’s respect and could rein him in.

Treliving was merely a figurehead in his final 2 years with the Flames, who shouldn’t have even survived the Bill Peters debacle, let alone the Geoff Ward mess. They should have hired a good GM like Dean Lombardi who knew how to control Sutter and had dismissed him before.

It's makes the rumor that it was actually Murray that hired him instead of Tre very believable.

 

[Kranix]

It's makes the rumor that it was actually Murray that hired him instead of Tre very believable.

doesn't make sense given treliving is supposed to have said him or me, and then left, and then they fired Darryl anyway.

 

[Backlund]

doesn't make sense given treliving is supposed to have said him or me, and then left, and then they fired Darryl anyway.

They had to fire Darryl because the media circus around him turned into too much and any hope you had of salvaging a playoff team from that roster meant you had to get rid of him or a bunch of guys were going to leave. They left anyway but it was going to be much worse if Darryl was the one coaching and speaking to the media while they were all waiting to be traded.

 

[Figgy44]

The organizational toxicity stemmed from not having a GM who had Sutter’s respect and could rein him in.

Treliving was merely a figurehead in his final 2 years with the Flames, who shouldn’t have even survived the Bill Peters debacle, let alone the Geoff Ward mess. They should have hired a good GM like Dean Lombardi who knew how to control Sutter and had dismissed him before.

Yeah, it's well known Sutter likes to influence certain decisions as a GM/Coach type of situation. We could see a stark change in the way we drafted after Sutter showed up, trades/UFA signings etc. Unlike the previous coaches who were more, "Give me something, I'll figure it out." Sutter was much more involved in figuring out what would go towards his roster. This isn't speculation, the information out there makes it obvious. Lewis, Richardson and Toffoli should be obvious enough. Z and Gudbranson as a 3rd pairing with high numbers is another.

The staffer thing popped up again when Sutter was turfed here. The captain thing was apparently another sore spot. It was mentioned that Backlund started an expletive filled argument with Sutter.

Sutter does give young guys responsibility, but yes, he's also the type of guy who likes his grizzled vets and piss and vinegar type of dudes. For as much as he gave Kylington minutes, Valimaki played but fell to Sutter. Ruzicka, Dube, Gawdin, Mackey got a bit of play time that first season.

The season after, Pelts got 24 games (apparently after frustration from team and Tre), Phillips fell, Duehr got games, Ruzicka got more games and then not much. But in that season, there weren't really any players deserving of graduation. The closest might be Schwindt or Coronato, but Coronato is still not ready as of this season and Schwindt is still a tweener as of this year.

Prospects who can play a mature but also old school sandpaper type game typically get graduated first by Sutter, otherwise he uses veterans. For smaller guys, sure I guess he doesn't like playing them and wants them to marinate a lot more, but I feel like this is a style and skill level issue rather than an age issue. Sutter technically does play prospects but he wants big boys who can play and not small guys who are still getting used to NHL speed. We can see this in the draft profiles of the players picked up in those two years vs the profiles of players for the years prior to him.

IMO if you replace Gulutzan with Sutter, he'd probably play the shit out of Bennett and Tkachuk even though they're prospects. Not because his hand is forced, but because the skill level and maturity of both guys were high enough and he'd love their style and their ability to fit into his system. Sutter had no issues playing Ruzicka (albeit he didn't really play Sutter style hockey) but he didn't like Pelts. Again, I don't think it's a prospect issue. It's an style of game and maturity of game issue. If Pospisil wasn't always injured during Sutter's tenure, I bet Sutter would play the shit out of him too.

From what I understand, Sutter doesn't really play mind games like dudes like Hartley, Babcock etc. His communication is obvious and players would easily know where they stand. But I think the other issue is that once he makes up his mind, it's hard to change it, even if the majority disagrees with him. That's why he has a shelf life and that's why most rosters revolt against him/some players love him and some hate him.

 

[Iggys Dome]

I will repeat myself- we are so lucky to have Huska, Conny and the rest as our management team. Huska reminds me of Cooper a lot. He is a SC material.

Huska? Seriously? He won’t make it to the new arena as coach.

I also think Conroy is vastly overrated by the fanbase. I was severely underwhelmed by his trades last deadline. We got a bunch of meh for Tanev, Hanifin, Markstrom and Hanifin.

And let’s not forget he was ready to hand out 8x9 to Lindholm and tried extending Hanifin as well until both players told him they weren’t interested in being a Flame.

 

[Mobiandi]

It's makes the rumor that it was actually Murray that hired him instead of Tre very believable.

The guy knew he was bulletproof. How many shots did he take at Treliving in the media about his roster-building? Anyone else would have been fired

 

[Backlund]

Huska? Seriously? He won’t make it to the new arena as coach.

I also think Conroy is vastly overrated by the fanbase. I was severely underwhelmed by his trades last deadline. We got a bunch of meh for Tanev, Hanifin, Markstrom and Hanifin.

And let’s not forget he was ready to hand out 8x9 to Lindholm and tried extending Hanifin as well until both players told him they weren’t interested in being a Flame.

I think Huska will stay around longer than most people think. He's Iginla's old junior teammate and a guy that's been with the organization for awhile. I don't see them firing him because the shitty rosters they give him can't make the playoffs.

The players saved Conroy from himself last season. He was ready to re-sign them all for some idiotic reason. I think he'll be decent as a rebuilding GM but he needs to learn when to cut bait.

 

[Rubi]

Huska? Seriously? He won’t make it to the new arena as coach.

I also think Conroy is vastly overrated by the fanbase. I was severely underwhelmed by his trades last deadline. We got a bunch of meh for Tanev, Hanifin, Markstrom and Hanifin.

And let’s not forget he was ready to hand out 8x9 to Lindholm and tried extending Hanifin as well until both players told him they weren’t interested in being a Flame.

Was I disappointed in the return for some of those players? Absolutely. However I don't blame Conroy. Better offers just weren't there. He took the best deals available. People really over value rental players at the TDL. And frankly, Lindholm played so shitty for the last couple of seasons that he was here I was surprised we got as good as we did.
As for Lindholm and Hanifin, I believe (and this is just my personal opinion) those offers were made at the direction of Murray Edwards. Edwards was doing his best to avoid a rebuild. I suspect to this day he still can't bring himself to say the word even though he's been forced into the middle of one.