My Wishlist for new GM Craig Conroy

[V1nny83at5]

I am (usually) a more pessimistic Flames fan who seems to witness the team in a vicious mediocre cycle, regardless of which GM is in charge (*cough* *cough* Jay Feaster *cough* *cough* Brad Treliving *cough* *cough*). GM Conroy promises to build a team culture on guys who actually want to be here. Unfortunately this may be limited by the Flames' current situation:

 

The Four/Five Horsemen of the Cap Space Apocalypse:

Huberdeau $10.5 million (a potential horror story of a contract if Huberdeau can't at least lead the team in scoring during his potential 8-year tenure)

Kadri $7 million (similar to Huberdeau except not expecting him to lead the team in scoring, but at the very least pray that he does not become +/- horror story)

Weegar $6.25 million (I guess decent for a defenceman, but is $6.25 million really worth being just decent? Better convert your defensive impact to more points...)

Markstrom $6 million (Praying for a bounce back, but fear that his idiotic tendencies to misplay the puck out of the net will cost us more games. When is Wolf taking over?)

*Coleman $4.9 million (*an asterisk, his dollars is not the problem, it's the NTC that will hamper us from trying to make any future moves with him should he fall off a cliff)

I have to begrudgingly say that these are the men of our team for the future; GM Conroy, you will have to unfortunately pay for the sins of Treliving while Gaudreau is anticipating either Michkov or Fantilli to play with him and Tkachuk is living it up with Bennett in Florida.

 

GM Conroy, if you don't want the Gaudreau/Tkachuk situation to reoccur again with the 7+ pending UFAs/RFAs on our roster for 2024 (Backlund, Lindholm, Toffoli, Hanifin, Tanev, Zadorov, Gilbert, Kylington, Dube (RFA), Ruzicka (RFA)), here's my suggestion for shaping the team:

Send out an anonymous poll to those 2024 free agents during this 2023 summer offseason. Based on their answers, whoever shows the slightest doubt about staying long term with the team, you should immediately put them on the trade block and pray that at least a sizeable return will come back for those players during the offseason. Hopefully the players/prospects we get in return have a stronger affinity towards playing in Calgary than whomever we traded out. 

 

For the draft, these are my preferences for what kind of player I want the Flames to draft with their 1st round pick:

-a right shot forward (preferable centre) who has natural goal-scoring/shooting talent (we lack enough punch in our scoring; if we can't get one via trade/free agency better get one for the future)

-a right shot defenceman with a decent stride in his skating; bonus points for shooting skills (you can never have too many right shot defencemen, the more in our pipeline the better)

-Ultimately we need more speed and goal scoring/shooting to supplement our current roster/prospect pool.

 

This is my wishlist for GM Conroy. I have cautious optimism for Conroy's tenure, but I fear the same mistakes could be repeated again (after all, he was the assistant GM during the years of Feaster and Treliving).

 

PS please no more impulsive free agency signings, I don't want another James Neal, Troy Brouwer, Nazem Kadri like signing where we're forced to buy them out, trade for other bad contracts like Lucic or at worst stuck with them forever. If we do sign free agents, just one-year tryouts and nothing more.

 

For funsies, here's my super unrealistic capfriendly Armchair GM trade for Connor Bedard: https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/716725?post_id=4116421

[conundrumed]

I have 1 wish.

Take all of your players in camp and give each player the podium to tell everyone how they got here. And I don't mean draft, scout, skills. Just why are you here and what did you learn when you got here?

So now everybody knows everybody. Everybody can remember why they're doing this and find that passion and find big respect for one another.

A guy like Huberdeau getting traded for Tkachuk. Tkachuk is elated and plays like it. Huberdeau is a broken bicycle feeling betrayed. It isn't going to fix itself.

And a big contract doesn't wash it all away.

Let everyone from Kuznetsov to Kerins to Coleman to Weegar tell everyone their story, because they are all different.

Only now, you guys can get out there and remember why it is that you're here, because you know that it isn't about money.

Now get out there and remember and understand why each of you is putting yourselves through this Satoshi Nakamoto.

Now you can be a team and play for one another.

Going for dinner isn't team-building.

Everyone's story matters. And it matters that they can tell it. Being a vet or a prospect is no different if the vet can't remember what it took to get him here.

The ultimate teaching moment for everybody.

Conroy would be the perfect guy to kick it off. "Here's how it happened for me. Now that I'm older, here are my regrets. Don't have my regrets, they suck".

[robrob74]

7 hours ago, conundrumed said:

I have 1 wish.

Take all of your players in camp and give each player the podium to tell everyone how they got here. And I don't mean draft, scout, skills. Just why are you here and what did you learn when you got here?

So now everybody knows everybody. Everybody can remember why they're doing this and find that passion and find big respect for one another.

A guy like Huberdeau getting traded for Tkachuk. Tkachuk is elated and plays like it. Huberdeau is a broken bicycle feeling betrayed. It isn't going to fix itself.

And a big contract doesn't wash it all away.

Let everyone from Kuznetsov to Kerins to Coleman to Weegar tell everyone their story, because they are all different.

Only now, you guys can get out there and remember why it is that you're here, because you know that it isn't about money.

Now get out there and remember and understand why each of you is putting yourselves through this Satoshi Nakamoto.

Now you can be a team and play for one another.

Going for dinner isn't team-building.

Everyone's story matters. And it matters that they can tell it. Being a vet or a prospect is no different if the vet can't remember what it took to get him here.

The ultimate teaching moment for everybody.

Conroy would be the perfect guy to kick it off. "Here's how it happened for me. Now that I'm older, here are my regrets. Don't have my regrets, they suck".

where I'm from, that is the Indigenous way of doing things. We describe who we are and how we got here, our familiy's story, our name and what it means; it's a way to show you're here in good intentions. It's pretty cool. It's how up and down the coast of BC we'd enter territories, and due to our systems of governance, everyone kind of knew everyone or at least the family we come from. 
 

it's a great idea, plus fans get to receive intimate knowledge of the player. I think it would be interesting if they might build more respect both ways and also make the player more accountable? I mean I a sense that they might care just a bit more...