It is two years since Craig Conroy was called the GM of the Calgary Flames. His time with the team is certainly filled with ups and downs, because he has made a good part of strong and questionable movements so far. While he enters his third season as GM, FLAMSS -Fans will be enthusiastic to see how he continues to facilitate his vision to hopefully change the Flames in Stanley Cup opportunities.
In today’s article I share my list with some of the best and worst movements of Conroy as Flames GM. These include transactions, signing sessions or other movements that strike me the most, so if I miss one of the two categories, feel free to feel to mention them in the comments below.
The best: flames are strong capitalization on the commercial value of Elias Lindholm
Conroy started his term of office as Flames’ GM in a difficult place. The team was expected to be in the Playoff yacht after a disappointing season 2022-2023. When they approached at the beginning of the 2023-24 season, the sound with regard to a rebuilding became louder.
The flames had several awaiting UFAs in the team and their futures were in the air. While the team continued to struggle, it became known that many of these players did not want to sign in Calgary again. Elias was Lindholm among those players. Lindholm was part of the biggest sale in the franchise history of the Flames, because the flames would send him to the Vancouver Canucks in February.
The return that the flames received for him was huge. In exchange for Lindholm, the Andrei Kuzmenko team, a first round pick from 2024, prospects Hunter Brzustewicz and Joni Jurmo and a conditional pick of 2024. When the return was announced, Flames -fans saw it as an immediate victory.
Since then, trade has been well outdated for the team. Lindholm would only be a rental home for the Canucks. As far as the flames are concerned, they ended up with promising pieces for the future, because Brzustewicz is a defender Flames fans are quite high. They used the first Rounder to select Forward Matvei Gridin, another prospect that fans fascinate. As for the fourth, the Flames exchanged for Picks to go down in the 2024 design to select Luke Misa and Eric Jamieson. Kuzmenko would also be a prominent player for them, but he was traded the following season. In general, the trade in Lindholm was a SLAM -Dunk from Conroy, because the team added important assets to their Futures cabinets.
The worst: the flames were not lucky with Hanifin
Now go to an exchange where Conroy was not lucky. Under the hanging UFAs, the flames Noah Hanifin had, which also seemed like he went out of the city later. Flames fans hoped that with Hanifin a top-four defender in his Prime, a return to an exchange would be important, just like the Lindholm deal.
Unfortunately, Flames fans would be enormously disappointed, because the team would not even return in the neighborhood. Hanifin was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Daniil Miromanov, a conditional pick from the third round 2025 and a conditional pick of 2025. The return was enormously disappointing, since the flames also retain 50% of Hanifin’s salary.
Part of it was not exactly the fault of Conroy. The Hanifin camp has essentially fascinated the flames and showing interest in just a small number of teams where Hanifin would sign an extension. Oh, and Hanifin presented itself in Vegas, which means that the Flames’ returns a lot disappointingly.
As expected, trade has not since been outdated for the flames. Miromanov has been almost a non-factor for the team and the Flames used the third to set up goalkeeper Kirill Zarubin. The only actual value that the flames received was the first, which was converted in 2026 and unprotected. We will see what the flames do with that choice, but it is safe to say that many fans consider this exchange as one of the weakest movements in the Conroy era so far.
Dear: De Jacob Markstrom trade
The 2023-24 season was filled with endless drama. Flames starter Jacob Markstrom would eventually become involved in trade rumors, suggesting that he was almost traded to the New Jersey Devils near the deadline. He would be moved to the devils in the low season and the trade turned out to be strongly aging for the flames.
The team received defender Kevin Bahl and a pick from the first round of 2025 to protect the top 10. Although trade seemed overwhelming at the time, it is safe to say that it is now far from underwhelming. Bahl has since flourished a strong top-four defender and has organized a role for himself on the Blueline of the Flames for years, considering how he is only 25.
Regarding the first, the Flames would use it to select Cole Rschy in this year’s design. He is a center and currently a top five prospect within the Flames system. Getting a return from Bahl and Reschy for a 34-year-old Markstrom is not too poor.
The most important aspect, however, was the Flames that made room for Dustin Wolf to come forward as the full -time starter of the team. The entire argument that Markstrom should act as a mentor for Wolf turned out to be inadequate. Conroy received a considerable value from a keeper in his mid -thirty, something that does not always happen.
Worst: the expansion of Yegor Sharangovich
Hear me now: this is a player who is still somewhat high. But the game of Yegor Sharangovich last season did not even come close to justifying his new contract. Sharangovich, after scoring a career height of 31 goals and 59 points in 2023-24, was rewarded with an extension of five years with an AAV of $ 5.75 million a year.
Sharangovich struggled enormously this last season to follow his production. He only scored 17 goals and 32 points in 73 games. While he started the season, he was not the same player and missed the attacking passion he had earlier. His new contract has not started yet, because it starts this season.
Can Sharangovich bounce back? He can. If he doesn’t, his contract will look pretty bad and it will probably be an obligation in the future. He will be a player that I will keep an eye on.
Best: Exemption claims
This is an underrated movement of Conroy, which I don’t see that I can be spoken about enough. The exemption claims that he has made as a GM so far, has been excellent.
Conroy has claimed that players such as AJ Greer, Joel Hanley and Brayden Pachal through exemptions. Two of those boys are now quite important pieces of blueline from the Flames. They have also been effective players. The value exists within the thread and that has made the best of it so far. GMs who know how to use the distance wire effectively get points in my books.
Honorable mentions
As mentioned earlier, there are probably many more movements and attributes of Conroy that I can mention. For the best movements, his preparation after 2023 was first -class, in particular the preparation of Zayne Parekh Ninth General in 2024 and the work he did in the later rounds.
As for the worst, this is not necessarily a specific move, but more as a characteristic of Conroy that is not that favorable. For example, the process of trading players, simply because they are approaching the UFA status, is not that effective. In addition to Markstrom, most players who traded Conroy were almost all hanging UFAs, essentially a movement that occurred. There has been no urgency for Conroy for players for other reasons, which is why the current Rasmus Anderson situation is still a storyline with this team.
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