Conroy hopes Flames veterans want to be part of re-tool

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Perhaps, in the summertime, there’ll must be one other wave of motion across the Calgary Flames.

For now, getting previous Friday’s NHL commerce deadline signifies that GM Craig Conroy can deal with the elements of his job that don’t embody taking calls from opposing groups and looking for offers to ship his veterans out of city.

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His first 10 months on the job concerned transferring Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev and Noah Hanifin. Even typing out that listing is tiring.

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However they had been all set to turn out to be unrestricted free brokers and when it grew to become clear that they weren’t going to re-sign, Conroy needed to transfer them.

Everybody can perceive that. The Flames needed to get one thing in return if these gamers had been going to depart.

However what does it sign to the veterans within the Flames’ locker-room who’re nonetheless round?

The Flames acquired youthful and it’s going to take just a few years earlier than they’re true contenders for a Stanley Cup once more.

Do guys of their 30s like Blake Coleman and Nazem Kadri wish to spend the tail finish of their primes taking part in for a group that doesn’t have an actual shot at glory?

How does a GM like Conroy persuade them that Calgary is the place they wish to be?

“I’m hoping they see, even when you have a look at Kadri’s state of affairs, when he performs with (Connor Zary and Martin Pospisil) he makes them so significantly better,” Conroy mentioned. “However I feel they’ve helped him. To see him deliver them alongside, I’m hoping we are able to add gamers like that and that’s what our workers thinks.

“I feel it’s a retool, bringing in younger guys with our veteran gamers we’ve got right here. We imagine we are able to flip this issues round and I feel they imagine in the identical factor and also you’re seeing it night-in and night-out.”

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The way in which the Flames have responded to shedding so many key veterans is likely to be one of the best argument Conroy can current if he has to persuade anyone that the group’s long-term venture is one thing they wish to be part of.

Regardless of shedding all these massive names, the Flames have the identical variety of factors (67) after 62 video games as they did final 12 months and so they’ve carried out it whereas changing skilled veterans with usually unproven youth.

That they’ve managed to maintain up the tempo is form of outstanding, and whereas a few of it may be attributed to Jacob Markstrom’s return-to-form in web, that doesn’t account for the whole lot. Simply for example, Markstrom’s high quality play doesn’t clarify how a group that had a league-low two third-period comeback wins final season has overcome eight third-period deficits this season, the second-most within the league.

There’s a combat within the Flames, and so they’re proving that getting youthful doesn’t must imply worse outcomes.

“I feel we’re 10-4 in our final 14 and we’ve misplaced superb gamers,” Conroy mentioned. “Once you have a look at the sport (Thursday) evening, to see the feedback after (a 6-3 win in Tampa), to see what the blokes are doing and the way they’ve rallied collectively, I couldn’t be extra proud and I feel that’s what this group is all about. It’s not one or two people, it’s the entire group.”

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The Flames have plenty of necessary, skilled gamers signed for the following couple years and, once more, there’s been no indication that any of them are going to ask to be moved.

It could be comprehensible in the event that they wished to chase a Cup, however guys like Kadri, Coleman, MacKenzie Weegar and Jonathan Huberdeau are all beneath contract for just a few extra years. You’d presumably wish to have them round offering management, and meaning you need them comfortable.

And the excellent news is the very veterans you may fear about staying engaged throughout a rebuild are the identical guys who’ve stepped up and pushed the Flames to maintain successful regardless of the roster motion that’s dominated dialog across the group not too long ago.

“The way in which these guys dealt with it and the best way they’ve risen to the problem each day, it’s very spectacular and it says quite a bit about that group down there and the assumption they’ve in one another,” Conroy mentioned. “It’s by no means straightforward once you lose pals and good individuals and the whole lot like that, however ultimately we all know it’s a enterprise and so they come to work. That’s what these guys do. They arrive to work each day. It’s a particular group, and we’re going to maintain pushing ahead right here till the top.”

Will that be sufficient to persuade veteran gamers that they wish to be part of what the Flames are constructing?

Perhaps, possibly not.

Conroy set the Flames on a path in the direction of a youthful roster when he realized the 5 soon-to-be unrestricted free brokers wouldn’t re-sign. It was the appropriate transfer, even when it was the one transfer.

The remaining might be found out come summertime.

daustin@postmedia.com

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