It appears the Calgary Flames are about to officially announce general manager Craig Conroy’s contract extension. Elliotte Friedman reports this on Wednesday evening: “Tonight we hear that the Calgary Flames and GM Craig Conroy are moving forward with a contract extension. This has been talked about a lot over the last few days… not sure when it will be finalized, but we are moving toward that conclusion.”
It was an interview by Flames president Don Maloney this week that really started the conversation about Conroy’s future. The GM inexplicably does not have an extension, and Maloney was asked about the status of any talks. He replied that he didn’t want to talk about it, and that it all remained internal. Noting that the team was going through a process, he added: “As we go through every day, everything is an evaluation.
That triggered NHL insider Frank Seravalli, who said in his Frankly hockey podcast, “The sooner Craig Conroy and the rest of the Calgary Flames staff don’t have to report to Don Maloney, the sooner the rest of this franchise will be better off.” It was clear that Seravalli thought the Flames were clueless and irresponsible by not getting this done and waiting for some announcement simply because the team hadn’t gotten a few more wins.
It’s unclear if Seravalli’s heated comments had anything to do with shifting the Flames’ timeline, but Seravalli wasn’t the only one who felt like Maloney made a PR mistake in the way he spoke about his current GM’s future.
Friedman subsequently reported in his written column with 32 thoughts:
“I’d be surprised if Calgary General Manager Craig Conroy, in the final year of his contract, isn’t re-signed. For starters, I don’t believe head coach Ryan Huska is the only person in the organization to get an extension recently, so the Flames are taking care of business. A manager from another team told me it’s not unheard of for conversations to slow down or stop when things are tough. That doesn’t mean it changes your long-term plans, but there’s an allergy to reward when the on-ice results are off, I don’t think so. Don Maloney should be fired for last week’s comments. You just have to know at the right time.
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