The Calgary Flames and general manager Brad Treliving agreed to “mutually part ways,” the team announced Monday. Here’s what you need to know:
- Treliving, whose contract expires on June 30, will not return as the team’s GM next season.
- Flames executive Don Maloney has been promoted to the team’s president of hockey operations and interim general manager.
- The Flames said that the process to “secure the services of the Flames’ next General Manager will begin immediately.”
- Calgary failed to qualify for the postseason this year, finishing fifth in the Pacific Division with a 38-27-17 record.
What they’re saying
“It’s a difficult day when you must part ways with a quality colleague and friend,” CSEC president and CEO John Bean said in a statement. “We are grateful of Brad’s contributions over the past nine years and wish him every success in his future, both personally and professionally. But for our fans and our business, we need to move forward, and we are confident with Don’s experience that we will find the right General Manager to build on Brad’s work and lead our team to the Stanley Cup.”
GO DEEPER
Duhatschek: Expect a Flames offseason full of drama
Treliving’s time in Calgary
Treliving joined the Flames in April 2014 when they were a mess. Thirteenth overall in the Western Conference and having missed the playoffs for five consecutive seasons. They made the playoffs the next year and in the course of Treliving’s tenure, had some excellent regular seasons — notably last year, when they won the Pacific Division, and two years before that when they tied Boston for the second-best record in the NHL. Treliving’s two main strengths were getting players signed to long-term contracts for what eventually proved to be very favorable terms for the team and making bold moves on the trade front. The June 2018 trade that brought in Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin landed them two young, key pieces that ended up signing extensions that averaged under $5 million.
In short, Treliving was a shrewd manager of the salary cap and in an era where GMs shied away from risky trades, had his finger in practically every trade pie.
Ultimately, his undoing, was that the team failed to turn regular-season success into any consequential playoff runs. In 2019, as the top seed in the West, the Flames were upset by the eighth-seeded Colorado Avalanche — powered by a newcomer named Cale Makar. Last year, they squeaked out an opening-round win over the Dallas Stars but then fell in the second round to the rival Edmonton Oilers. And this year, they managed to finish in arguably the worst possible position — ninth in the Western Conference, and with the best record of the NHL’s 16 non-playoff teams. That, in turn, gives them the worst odds in the May 8 draft lottery, which will determine, among other things, Connor Bedard’s professional fate. If the Flames had operated in the East, their 93-point total would have been enough to secure a wild-card spot.
Under extreme duress, Treliving received high marks for his work last summer, when the Flames’ two top forwards turned their backs on the team. Johnny Gaudreau left as a free agent to join the Columbus Blue Jackets and Matthew Tkachuk announced he wouldn’t sign a contract extension with the team, effectively forcing a trade.
Treliving got good value on paper in exchange for Tkachuk — the No. 2 scorer in the league back in 2021-22 (Jonathan Huberdeau) plus a top-three defenseman in MacKenzie Weegar. Then he used the money Gaudreau left on the table to sign free-agent Nazem Kadri away from the Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. Many experts saw the Flames as a contender to win it all. The fact that they came up short had to do with multiple factors, including the unexpected struggles of the newcomers to adapt to the strict coaching style of Darryl Sutter.
Treliving was on an expiring contract; the two sides couldn’t come to terms on an extension last summer, at the time Sutter received two additional years as a reward for the 2022 surge. — Duhatschek
What’s next for the Flames?
Treliving brought Maloney into the Flames’ organization after the two had worked together in Arizona, and it will be up to Maloney to determine whether to look outside the organization for Treliving’s successor or to promote from within.
The Flames have an excellent candidate internally in Craig Conroy, an assistant GM with the team who has patiently been waiting for an opportunity to move up. Conroy has excellent people skills, something that’ll be necessary as long as the prickly Sutter is in the organization.
Whoever lands the job is going to have their hands full because a quartet of key players — including Lindholm, Hanifin, Mikael Backlund and Tyler Toffoli — are all entering the final years of their respective contracts.
Both Lindholm and Backlund were non-committal in exit interviews about their interest in re-signing with the Flames, noting that they wanted to see which direction the organization was heading before deciding their next steps. That’ll be the first order of business for the new GM — to see just who wants to stay and who wants to go, and then determine the next steps at that juncture. — Duhatschek
What does this mean for the rest of Calgary’s staff?
The Flames have many questions to tackle this offseason. What will be the future of many unrestricted free agents in their group for this year and next? What will be the future for Sutter? Which other front office staff members will remain? But it was always clear that the Treliving domino would have to be the first to fall.
What seems clear in the immediate aftermath is that the Flames will want a general manager who can bring this team to contention status. Flames president John Bean said in a news release that he was confident that they could find a successor who could “build on Brad’s work and lead our team to the Stanley Cup.” Not to mention parting with pieces like Huberdeau and Kadri would be a very tough sell considering their bloated and lengthy contracts in the salary cap world we live in.
Sutter’s future is the next thing to focus on. He signed a two-year contract extension last fall and early reports suggest he’ll stay on. But with him staying on, what does that mean for other players who are closer to exiting their contracts? It’s the beginning of what promises to be a very interesting spring and summer in Calgary. — McKenzie
Who is Don Maloney?
Maloney, a former pro player, joined the Flames in 2016 as a pro scout. He spent the last five seasons as the Flames’ senior vice president of hockey operations.
He also previously served as the Islanders’ general manager from 1992 to 1995 and has held front-office roles with the Arizona Coyotes and New York Rangers.
Required reading
(Photo: Sergei Belski / USA Today)
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2023-04-17 23:26:27Z
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