For years, the Calgary Flames have avoided the word “rebuild,” and it’s been a topic that the team has always been sensitive about. The goal for management and ownership has always been to make the team competitive, even if they weren’t truly a playoff contender. This resulted in mediocrity being the by-product of the Flames for many seasons, with promises that the next year would be better. No matter the situation, ownership wanted the team to remain in the playoff hunt each season, even if that meant they had to “sneak in.”
Fast forward to today, where the narrative around the Flames has completely changed. The moves that Craig Conroy and his staff are making clearly signify that the team is entering a rebuild. The fear that many fans had was whether ownership would tie the hands of management to get their way, however this doesn’t seem like the case. It’s clear that Conroy has been given the green light to make his mark on the team.
Flames realized that a rebuild was inevitable
Let’s face it: the writing was on the wall for a rebuild years ago. When Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk left the team in 2022, fans were already bringing up the rebuild conversation. However, management did not agree, and Brad Treliving—Flames GM at the time—decided that he wanted to pull his team right back into contention.
It started with the blockbuster Tkachuk trade that saw Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar come to Calgary from the Florida Panthers. Then, the Flames signed free agent Nazem Kadri to a seven-year deal, later followed by Weegar and Huberdeau also being extended long-term. The Flames were back in the game and ready to contend once again, or so we thought…
The Flames would miss the 2023 postseason by two points, followed by Treliving parting ways with the team. After Conroy’s hiring, the team was expected to bounce back. After all, assuming players like Elias Lindholm, Jonathan Huberdeau, and Jacob Markstrom had good seasons, the 2022–2023 season was viewed as just being a “fluke.”
Well, unfortunately, this situation was far from being a “fluke.” The Flames would start the 2023–2024 season with a 2–7–1 record, and the rebuild conversation got even louder. Conroy saw the inevitable and began the process of changing his team’s status from a playoff contender to a seller. The Flames would end up engaging in one of the biggest sell-offs in franchise history, and the team was in unfamiliar territory for the first time in a while.
The “dreaded” rebuild that fans have been wanting for years was finally coming, and Conroy’s trades proved that. As for ownership, all they could do was sit back and watch as the Flames finally started to carve a direction for themselves.
Conroy made moves that Treliving would’ve never gotten away with
Given that the Flames are finally rebuilding, many ask why this process didn’t begin sooner.
Ownership was clearly more involved when Treliving was here. It’s obvious that his power in the franchise was dwindling due to Sutter’s influence, and the power imbalance was hurting the team. Sutter’s coaching methods did not align with Treliving’s values, but even before Sutter’s hiring, it seemed like his actions always had an influence from the Flames’ higher-ups.
So why isn’t Conroy getting the same treatment? Why does he get more freedom to put his stamp on the team? It’s likely that when it came to convincing ownership, Conroy simply proposed a better long-term plan than Treliving would’ve. Flames fans will finally know what to expect from this team this season and beyond. There seems to be a concrete plan in place and something to look forward to for the future, and that’s huge.
To sum it all up, it seems like the argument that ownership is against a rebuild is no longer valid. The team is clearly heading in that direction, and the “retool” argument has also been scrapped. The Flames, this time around, are not fearing the process and instead are making efforts to follow a proven method of success.
