After a near-month long search, the Calgary Flames did not have to go far to find a new general manager, with the club announcing Tuesday they promoted assistant general manager Craig Conroy.
Conroy, who spent the bulk of his NHL career with the Flames, replaces Brad Treliving after Treliving and the club mutually parted ways in mid-April.
Conroy retired from playing during the 2010-11 season and immediately joined the Flames front office. He served as the club’s special assistant to the GM for four seasons. He was then named the Flames’ assistant GM, a position he held for nine years prior to his promotion.
“Thank you to the Flames ownership group for the confidence and trust they have demonstrated by providing me with this opportunity,” Conroy said in a statement. “As, to John Bean and Don Maloney for the very detailed process that has brought us to this moment. Over the course of the past 12 years, I’ve put in the time in every aspect of our hockey operations to prepare myself for today. I’m ready to accept this challenge and promise our fans that our team will do the work required to make them proud on the journey to deliver a championship.”
Promoting Conroy to GM was one of a handful of personnel changes the Flames announced. The Flames also said they hired Dave Nonis as their senior vice president of hockey operations and assistant general manager. Nonis, who was previously the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks, has spent the last three years as the assistant GM for the Anaheim Ducks.
The Flames also announced added responsibilities for assistant GMs Brad Pascall and Chris Snow. Pascall was named vice president of hockey operations while Snow was named the vice president of data/analytics.
Even before Treliving and the Flames parted ways, there was a belief that this could be an offseason of change for the Flames.
They were coming off a 2021-22 season that saw them reach the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs .only to be forced to re-tool significant portions of their roster. They lost a pair of 100-point forwards last offseason when Johnny Gaudreau left in free agency to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Matthew Tkachuk was traded to the Florida Panthers. Another 100-point forward in Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar came the other way.
The Flames also signed center Nazem Kadri in free agency after he finished with a career-high 87 points and played a significant role in helping the Colorado Avalanche win the third Stanley Cup title in franchise history.
Even with those additions, the Flames still struggled to score goals. They were 19th in goals per game in addition to facing other challenges such as having the second poorest team save percentage in 5-on-5 play, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Yet they still entered the final weeks of the regular season fighting for a playoff spot only to fall two points shy.
Conroy and his front office will have several items they must address prior to the start of the season. Finding a new coach is one of them, with the Flames announcing they fired Darryl Sutter just weeks after Treliving’s departure.
Then there’s the matter of how Conroy and his front-office staff will improve the Flames roster.
The Flames have several players in Rasmus Andersson, Blake Coleman, Andrew Mangiapane, Jacob Markstrom, Huberdeau, Kadri and Weegar with more than two years left on their current contracts. CapFriendly projects the Flames have $1.25 million in available cap space — a predicament facing several clubs in the current flat cap environment.
