The Calgary Flames season is going just as well as many thought. That is to say, so far, it has been supremely mediocre. The team started their year with a massive losing skid, followed by a strong bounce-back, to now finding themselves well below-average among NHL teams—something we typically expect year after year with this team and franchise.
Of course, the team is reaching a critical turning point in their history coming up in the next few weeks. With a long list of pending unrestricted free agents and several young prospects ready to make the jump to the NHL, the team is either headed toward a rebuild or continued mediocrity.
For the Flames, the term rebuild seems to be banned from their mindsets and vernacular which leaves the team in an absolute conundrum. It wasn’t until recently that the team started being more open to using such a word. Recall during an offseason press conference after Brad Treliving left, Flames CEO John Bean couldn’t even utter the word “rebuild” and explicitly said he was avoiding saying it.
With yesterday’s report from Bruce Garrioch highlighting that the team is unwilling to make a deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs due to former GM Brad Treliving being at the helm, it’s clear that the team’s hockey decisions are being driven more by ownership than hockey operations—an issue that has plagued this team for far too long.
Edwards has his hand in the honey pot
Garrioch’s report when discussing the Toronto Maple Leafs’ plans to acquire a new defenceman focused solely on Chris Tanev. It was clear from multiple reports that the Leafs tried to acquire both Tanev and Nikita Zadorov, but couldn’t agree on both the compensation for both players as well as the compensation for salary retention.
To be clear, this is a good thing. The team’s underselling on some of their key trade assets could be disastrous.
The more concerning part was the rest of Garrioch’s report.
The belief among league executives is Flames owner Murray Edwards is “no hurry” to help Treliving and the Leafs. The two sides couldn’t get the package deal with Zadorov done and the sense is, that if Toronto really wants Tanev, the club has to be willing to pay.
This really grinds my gears personally. The issue with finding a trade partner in the NHL is that you have to have what someone else really wants. It’s clear that Treliving would like to acquire the player he signed to his current contract back in 2020. The Leafs are in serious need of defensive help and it’s likely they are working hard to acquire him.
Should the Flames give him away for free? Absolutely not. Should they wait longer to trade him if they have a good offer on the table? Absolutely zero percent chance. Tanev is an injury-prone player who plays with little regard for his own body and has already had a few scares this season, so the longer the team waits the bigger risk it has.
This screams more ego than anything from Edwards. Rather than making the best decision from a hockey perspective, he’s clearly still jaded that Treliving left the team when many expected him to return to his position. At the end of the day, who cares who’s on the other side of the phone if they are offering the best deal? If the Leafs are trying to undersell then it’s understandable, but if the deal isn’t getting off the ground solely due to Edwards’ input then that is a massive issue.
The Flames have a recurring theme of ownership power strugglers
The most frustrating part of this all is that ownership’s intervention in hockey operations has clearly been going on for a long time, and based on the team’s performance is surely not helping any matters.
If the team was competing for the Stanley Cup year after year, then it’s a non-issue, but this perpetual state of mediocrity can be traced back directly to Edwards’ input and ego. We all can recall the multiple failed Ben Bishop deals that were stifled mainly due to Edwards not being reachable by phone to approve the transactions. If that is how a hockey operations staff is run, then clearly there are some issues there.
You almost can take a look back at Treliving’s decision to leave and understand it more now. Having to run decisions by an owner on most transactions would get tiresome over time. It’s clear he wanted a break from that, and even more clear why the team promoted Craig Conroy from within due to his existing relationship and knowledge of how Edwards oversees the team.
You can even look at the coaching staff in the last few seasons and see Edwards’ fingerprints. It’s quite clear who made the call to re-hire Darryl Sutter back in 2021, and even more clear who didn’t want to fire him after last year’s debacle. Due to his own decisions and chequebook being responsible for paying Sutter nearly $10M over the next two years, the team almost had to opt for first-time NHL coach Ryan Huska as a purely financial decision.
If the captain of the ship is adamant about taking the wheel at the most inopportune time, then the team is bound to keep aimlessly sailing until change is made.
Remove the ego
Going back to the original report, it’s extremely risky to take such a patient, ego-driven approach to a Tanev deal with the Leafs. Reports came out yesterday that the team had an interest in Rasmus Ristolainen, which means there is a certain point in time where they just may end conversations completely.
The Leafs aren’t the only team in the NHL that may want Tanev, but they are the team that needs him most right now. There is no rush to make a deal, but waiting to trade him solely on the basis of not wanting to make Treliving look good is childish.
Tanev is one of the team’s best defensive players and will surely help any team that he is on. If the Flames could actually commit to a rebuild at some point, it doesn’t matter what team he goes to as long as you are able to get the most value for him.
