If you were to ask Calgary Flames fans how general manager (GM) Craig Conroy has done since taking over the role after the 2022-23 season, you’d have a wide range of answers. There are some who love the approach Conroy is taking, which is keeping the team competitive while giving young players their opportunity. He’s stated that he’s against an outright rebuild.
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Being against a rebuild is where other fans have taken issue, as they’ve watched their team be in the mushy middle for two decades and feel as though this current plan will keep them in that exact same position. With that, it’s no surprise to see that based on a recent survey from The Athletic, fans are quite divided on the job Conroy is doing with this team.
Flames Management Receiving Middling Results
With it being the dog days of the offseason, Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic has put together several listicles over the offseason, including the NHL’s worst contracts, which teams are positioned from best to worst from a cap perspective, and much, much more.
Recently, Luszczyszyn got fans involved in a yearly piece he puts together that ranks each team’s front offices based on the opinions of their respective fan bases. To no surprise, teams like the Florida Panthers, Dallas Stars, and Carolina Hurricanes received fantastic reviews, while others like the Boston Bruins, Nashville Predators, and Buffalo Sabres fared very poorly. The Flames, meanwhile, were right in the middle of the pack (from ‘Dom Luszczyszyn: NHL front-office confidence rankings: How fans feel about every team in 2025,’ –The Athletic, 8/20/25).
The Flames came in at 18th for the second consecutive year, edging out teams like the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, while falling just behind the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets. As Luszczyszyn points out, the somewhat unclear direction is what is continuing to result in the middling ranking.
“One of the big questions in Calgary at the moment regards the team’s direction,” Luszczyszyn wrote. “Are the Flames rebuilding? Are they retooling? Are they tanking? Are they trying to be competitive? It’s difficult to say after last year’s surprise season and this summer’s lack of activity. The Flames have a team of players who want to be there and some exciting prospects on the horizon, but are they on a contending trajectory?”
This is more than a fair point by Luszczyszyn, who mentioned the likes of Zayne Parekh as a player who has fans extremely excited and figures to become a star in the NHL. While they have several other intriguing prospects, however, it’s hard at this point to suggest any have the potential to become true game changers, which is often what separates the true contenders from the teams in the middle.
While other prospects do have potential to develop into very good NHLers, including the likes of Hunter Brzustewicz, Cole Reschny, Cullen Potter, and Samuel Honzek, amongst others, it’s also possible they don’t amount to being much of anything. That’s what makes this plan of the Flames a risky one, as they are heavily relying on their picks from these recent drafts turning into impactful NHLers.
Conroy Has Luckily Avoided Some Disasters
One thing that supporters of Conroy will point to is that he’s done a good job of selling off veterans for some good future pieces, whether it be draft picks or young players who fit the retooling timeline. That said, while he has done a good job with the moves he’s made, he’s also narrowly avoided some big disasters.
The main one that comes to mind is the reported eight-year extension he had offered to Elias Lindholm, which the 30-year-old thankfully declined. He has since joined the Bruins on a long-term deal that is looking like a major disaster, given that he had just 47 points in 2024-25.
There have been some other disappointing moves as well, including the five-year extension given to Yegor Sharangovich, which is already looking like a poor decision despite the fact the contract has yet to kick in. The Noah Hanifin trade is also one that likely should have brought in a better return.
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Overall, it seems as though there is no real distaste for the job Conroy has done yet, but fans still feel there’s room for improvement. A big part of that will come between now and the trade deadline, as fans are banking on a big return from Rasmus Andersson, whose name has been on the block for some time. Should he nail that trade and several prospects have big seasons in 2025-26, we could see the Flames come in much higher on this list in a year’s time.
