Calgary Flames

The Calgary Flames need to produce more behind-the-scenes content with Conroy as GM

The announcement of Craig Conroy as the Flames’s new general manager last week was met with enormous amounts of positivity. For a franchise that was riddled with negative news and storylines over the past year, it was nice to see positive light shine on the franchise. Having a personable guy like Conroy as the face to media is perfect, given his positive and easy-going demeanor.

Now that the Flames have their guy, it’s time to follow the lead of other NHL teams and give the fans some behind-the-scenes content. In today’s day, fans want to be as close to the players, management, and team as ever. As we saw with the Amazon documentary of All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs a few seasons ago, there is a market and demand for this product. This is a space that the NHL needs to grow in, as they find themselves far behind other leagues like the NBA and NFL.

Examples of content produced by other teams

There are tons of examples of content in this space being produced by other NHL franchises. One of these examples is draft content, like the Canadiens releasing a video of their amateur scouts and management group discussing the decision to draft Juraj Slafkovsky over Shane Wright last year. Not often to we see content of NHL teams debating between players and seeing an NHL scouts point of view, so it was great for the fans.

Another example is free agency decisions. Columbus produced a phenomenal video outlining the behind-the-scenes action that took place to bring Johnny Gaudreau to Columbus. In the video, fans find out the only reason Columbus knew Gaudreau was interested in going there was because of fan-favourite Rick Nash and a call he received. We also get a look into the different dynamics of the organization, such as the phone calls made by Assistant GMs to the player agents, and how the negotiations go.

Another commonly used example is trade deadline content, like Minnesota Will GM Bill Guerin sprinting to the phone to answer a call from another GM:

Finally, the biggest example of behind-the-scenes content used by other teams is after a win. Most teams have a belt or hat they pass around to the player of the game. After a win, this is a great way to drum up even more positivity, as you show the team at their direct happiest and celebrating with one another.

The Flames already looking to set a new example

The Flames gave us an example on Conroy’s first day, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at Don Maloney and Conroy addressing the scouts during the Calgary Flames amateur scouting meetings.

Being in the same room with the Flames

Now that the Flames finally have some positivity, it’s time to market that. Craig Conroy is the perfect guy to feature, as he is well loved by the Flames fan base and staff. The Flames need to change the image they’ve created of themselves over the past year. In today’s day and age, big name players don’t want to go to markets like Calgary, as the negative media pulsates. One way of changing their image is simply producing more behind-the-scenes content. This connects fans to the organization in a brand new way, and may even bring over new fans to the Flames following.

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