The Calgary Flames didn’t make the playoff this season. Read More
The Calgary Flames didn’t make the playoff this season. But that doesn’t mean their general manager views it as a failure. Quite the contrary. When he was asked about the Flames missing the playoffs because of the NHL’s tie-breaker despite picking up 96 points, GM Craig Conroy offered-up a spirited case for why this season
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The Calgary Flames didn’t make the playoff this season.
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But that doesn’t mean their general manager views it as a failure.
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Quite the contrary.
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When he was asked about the Flames missing the playoffs because of the NHL’s tie-breaker despite picking up 96 points, GM Craig Conroy offered-up a spirited case for why this season was a success.
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“Absolutely,” Conroy said Saturday. “I know playoffs is the ultimate goal of a season but to do what we did, to be there right until the end, to see the growth of so many players on our team and what our leadership group did pulling young guys along and being able to put guys in situations, but with that said it’s still heartbreaking that you’re not going to get to play playoff hockey, and they deserved it. I thought they were going to make it and I give those guys credit, they came through big.”
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Here’s 10 takeaways from the Flames GM’s end-of-season media availability on Saturday:
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Noon News Roundup
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- ANDERSSON
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The biggest news-to-track this summer will be Rasmus Andersson’s future.
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The Swedish defenceman is eligible to sign an extension on July 1 and is an unrestricted free-agent in 2026, and acknowledged that he wasn’t sure whether his future was in Calgary when he spoke with the media Saturday.
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Conroy provided a little more clarity on the situation, although the Flames GM didn’t say anything concrete about whether he expected to get a deal done.
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“I talked to Ras today and I think there’s a little uncertainty right now, we didn’t really talk about anything other than that he was going to go to worlds,” Conroy said. “He’s earned that right, everybody has a time when they get to a point in their career where they have to make some decisions moving forward. We’ll sit down and talk about it and see where he’s at and where we’re at and if it makes sense to both sides, we’ll move forward.”
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Conroy and Andersson would both like to get his future sorted out this summer, but it’s not completely necessary. He does have another year on his contract, after all.
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“I would think something would get done this year, but I don’t want to put a timeframe on it,” Conroy said. “He has another year on his career, too, so I don’t want to say ‘Absolutely, there’s going to be something done in the next five months’. “
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- FREE AGENCY
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For anyone wondering whether the Flames are going to splash out some cash in free-agency, Conroy didn’t deny the possibility entirely.
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He did, however, reiterate that the team is taking a patient approach to building a contender.
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“I don’t think we’re going to fast-forward it and it’s hard to fast-forward it,” Conroy said.
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That doesn’t mean the Flames won’t try to make a splash in free-agency. They just know where they’re at. They’re excited about the guys they drafted in the last two seasons, but most of them haven’t even played a game in the NHL yet.
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Those young pieces will form the foundation of a squad that will hopefully be mixing it up at the top of the Western Conference, but that’s still a ways away.
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If the right guy is available, though? Conroy insists the Flames will take a shot at bringing him to Calgary.
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“We have the pro scouting meetings in May, I’ve challenged them to kind of target people that could be here long-term who could make a difference for us,” Conroy explained. “Obviously, when you get into free-agency, I don’t think our list would be very long but if there’s a person who is a game-changer we think we could have an opportunity to get, we’re definitely going to take a shot at him. Does that mean we’re going to get him? I don’t know.”
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- OFFER SHEETS ARE A POSSIBILITY
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Last summer, the St. Louis Blues tendered offer sheets to the Edmonton Oilers’ Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway. Both wound up with the Blues, who happen to be the team that narrowly edged-out the Flames for a playoff spot.
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Conroy clearly took notice, and said he’d absolutely consider handing offer-sheets to restricted free-agents around the league this summer.
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“We have to look at everything,” Conroy said. “Watching that from a distance and now they’re in the playoffs and we’re not, even though we have the same number of points, we have to look at all that. We have cap room and we have our picks, so we’re not going to take anything off the table.
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“There are rules and we have to make sure whatever is best for the Calgary Flames, that’s what we’re going to do.”
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- ADDING SPEED
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When head coach Ryan Huska was asked about the Flames’ overtime struggles this season, he mentioned a lack of speed.
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Asked whether it was something the Flames are lacking in the first 60 minutes of games, too, Huska agreed that it was.
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It’s something Conroy believes, too, and will be a priority this summer.
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“For sure, speed, especially when you’re in those three-on-threes and you notice teams that are really fast, they’re hard to handle,” Conroy said. “We’d like to add more speed and we’ve challenged the guys to go home and work as much as anything on we want to get faster. That’s skating and your lower-body strength and we expect them to come back and each guy be a little quicker and if we can add some speed, we’d look to do that, too.”
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5. EXTENDING HUSKA
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Huska has another year on his contract as head coach, and the Flames are thrilled with the job he’s done as bench boss.
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Conroy has other priorities to get to before he and Huska sit down and hammer out any sort of contract extension, but that shouldn’t be taken by anyone as the Flames GM not being happy with what Huska’s brought out of his team.
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“We haven’t really thought about Husk right now, I was looking at the players more,” Conroy said. “Those would be internal discussions with Don Maloney, Dave Nonis, Brad Pascall, myself, but huska’s done an amazing job. I’m not worried about it if we don’t, but I couldn’t be more happy with the job he’s done here for us.”
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6. HANLEY AND VLADAR’S FUTURE
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Both Dan Vladar and Joel Hanley are unrestricted free-agents, and both did a nice job for the Flames this year.
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Hanley emerged as a reliable partner for MacKenzie Weegar, with Huska even saying he might have been the Flames’ most consistent blueliner since the Four Nations Face-Off.
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Vladar, meanwhile, played well as Dustin Wolf’s backup, posting a .898 save percentage and a 2.80 goals-against-average this season.
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Are the Flames interested in bringing them back?
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“I talked to Dan and Joel, we’re going to talk to their people,” Conroy said. “They played great for us, they really did, but there’s only so many spots, that’s the other hard thing. We’ve got to figure out what are the best fits for us and what’s the best fit for them moving forward.”
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- SHARANGOVICH
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Conroy did drop a bit of a surprise late in his media availability when he revealed that Yegor Sharangovich had broken his foot in the last game of the Flames’ season.
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It doesn’t necessarily explain Sharangovich’s sub-par season – his goals-total fell from 31 goals in 2023-24 season to 17 this year – but it was notable nonetheless.
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“Sharangovich, his foot is broken, so we’re going to have to get him back at some point at four-to-six weeks and then he’ll be ready to go,” Conroy said. “He broke it the last game. He had a few other things that he played through during the year, but it’s just one of those years, it’s been one thing after another. I really thought he was playing well the last 10-to-15 games, where you’re like ‘OK, it’s coming’ and then this again.”
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- KADRI UNDER THE WEATHER
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Nazem Kadri didn’t do an end-of-season media availability on Saturday.
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There was no controversy, though.
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He wasn’t even at the rink.
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“He was sick today, he was not feeling well so he didn’t come in and we didn’t get to talk to him. He didn’t do his medicals or anything,” Conroy explained.
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- WRANGLERS GET SOME HELP
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Both Adam Klapka and Zayne Parekh were considered possibilities to join the Calgary Wranglers for their AHL playoff run.
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Only Klapka will be heading down, though.
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“We’re going to actually, Klapka, when he gets cleared he’s going to go down, talked to him, he wants to go down and be part of the run down there,” Conroy said. “Parekh, we’re not going to do. He’s played a lot of hockey. Last year, he didn’t get to train much, and this year the focus is to get stronger and make the team.”
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Last year, Parekh had a Memorial Cup run, had to do everything associated with the NHL draft, attended his first development camp with the Flames and then joined Team Canada for the World Junior Summer Showcase.
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- TIME TO STEP UP
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If the Flames are going to take the next step and be a playoff team next year, one thing that’s clear is that young guys are going to need to be even better.
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That means guys like Matt Coronato, Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil and more are going to elevate their games.
Whatever happens in free-agency or the trade market or anywhere else this off-season, that’s the single biggest key.
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“We need all these young guys to take a step in both on-ice and in their leadership and accountability to the team,” Conroy said. “As a young guy, he makes a mistake and it’s ‘Oh he’s a young guy’, we’ve got to kind of weed them off that to where we’re going to make mistakes but we’re not going to make mistakes over and over again. I expect all those guys to come back that much more comfortable, feeling that much better about their game.”
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