OverDrive - Conroy on the Flames' season views, acquiring Farabee and Frost and the team's trade approach

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Calgary Flames General Manager Craig Conroy joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Flames, the massive deal acquiring Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost for Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, the players fit on the team, the 4 Nations Face-Off becoming a factor on trades, the process in a deal for the team, the approach to the moves, Dustin Wolf's impressive season and more.

. Here's the GM of the Calgary Flames joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Here's Craig Conroy. How are you doing, Craig? Good, guys. How are you doing? We're doing well. Can you try to tell your other GMs in the league to stop making deals on Friday nights? It's just not good for our business. I know. If we don't do it on Friday and we try to hold it until Monday though, it's always

out there. So I think that's what they're thinking. If we just get it done, nobody knows everything's going to happen on a Friday. Yeah. Understandable. And we were kind of joking about the deal that you pulled off on Thursday that it happened during the Flyers game. The Flyers were playing. You obviously acquired Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee. Take us through that. Were you trying to get it done before puck drop?

Any thought in waiting until after the game? That's always kind of unique it has happened before But how how kind of difficult that is is it to get things done before a game or wait until after a game? Well, we were we actually kind of talked about it before we did talk about for the game obviously and then all of a sudden You know, they just said hey, we can't get any of our guys here We need to play our guys and I said, okay, we can't get any of our guys here. We need to play our guys. And I said, okay, we're going to play our guys also. And then, uh, cause Minko had, uh, you know, he had a partial no trade. So you know, we had to end up talking to Philly and, and, uh, working on that too.

So we didn't play him. We spoke to him during the first period. And then when Morgan Frost went down the hall I talked to Danny and just, you know, I said, hey, I'll pull Pelche also just in case. You know, at this point we were going to let him play. Now I'm like, it doesn't make any sense. So you know, which is always hard and it was uncomfortable for, you know, I felt bad for Pelche because, you know, you're geared up for the game.

You come in and then you get that kind of news. It's never fun. So I felt he was pretty emotional too. And then I had to kind of keep him in the room until the guys went out because you don't want to do that with... You just couldn't have him go back in because then it's just too emotional for the whole team. So you know, he stayed the whole game and got to see the guys at the end for sure though.

Yeah. And in terms of your coach, you know, Ryan Husker through all this, like he's filling a game sheet out. He's trying to figure things out. Like where does he come and play in all this? Like you just referenced the kind of how difficult it is dealing with two different teams and two different games going on. Was he kind of a... He must have been aware, clearly, but how does he handle that kind of news on the fly?

Well, I told him right before the game, if you could grab Kuzmenko and just let him know that he's not going to play tonight just because we had some work to do with him. And then I said, if everything goes through Pelletier probably after the game, I'll talk to Pelletier and let him know kind of what's going on. And then, so he knew going in, but then when I came down, he's like, what are you doing down here? I said, I'm just going to pull Pellets after the first just to be safe. He's like, oh boy, okay. So, you know, he just, he went and did his thing. I said, when's the best time? He said, you know, give it a couple of minutes and then we'll, then we'll grab them. So, you know,

he knew and then he just, you know, and, and those are the hard things. You wish it always worked out perfectly, but it sure didn't in that case. And I felt bad for the guys involved. Connie, I mean, you guys were talking about making trades. How difficult is it? You talk about the personal side. I mean, like to pull guys aside and these deals come together, like just telling them like right before the game,

like it's gotta touch you emotionally. And we were joking off the top about the timing of it. Do you get a sense that some or majority of the teams kind of want to get some work done here before this Four Nations thing starts? Well, it felt like, you know, I think the big thing was once the random trade happened, you know, it did feel like I got more calls and more interest. And I think people just said, okay, if we can get it done, you know, and from our point of view to kind of have the guys come in

and be able to play five games and then have the break and know what they're coming back to after the break, they're just gonna be feeling that much more comfortable. So it did make a little sense. And I think with Briere, he felt the same way, you know, we've talked about it. I mean, we talked last year,

at the beginning of this year, you know, months before. So, you know, and then it's weird how it just, sometimes it just really comes together quickly. They wanted to make a deal and, you know, it worked out for us too. So, you know, it really in one day, really all came together, even though you've been talking for a long time.

But, you know, I do think, and then you see the next day with the Miller, it just, yeah, it seemed like the floodgates kind of opened. I think it is nice to kind of get ahead of it for sure. So Connie, I read your comments and saw you on TV talking about you wanted to give your current team a little bit of a boost as far as going and getting some players. And you go and get a 24- old and a 25 year old, these aren't guys that are 30 and kind of near the end of their career, they're still ramping

up. What was the thought process in adding these two young players to the mix of your group right now? I think with our age, we got a real good group of veteran guys here with Todri and Hubert Doe, Backlund, Coleman and Wiggs, you know, and Anderson. And then we've been trying to add that younger group of players. So, you know, I think even at the beginning, we were looking from 22 to 25 would be an area we'd love to get in.

So for these two guys to come up and available, you know, they really fit into the age group well. And you did you wanted to give wanted to give, you wanted to reward the group for playing so hard. I know we weren't picked maybe to be where we are right now, but we thought, hey, if we can get a center, a natural center who's been real good in the face, over 50%, which puts them as the best in our team in the face-off, we could do that.

And to get Joel Farabee, who maybe just needed a little bit of a change from Philly. He had 22 goals last year, so we're hoping he comes in here, we can put him in a good spot and give him an opportunity to get back to where he was, and that was kind of the whole logic behind it. And to give up a couple draft picks was the other part of it, and I think Danny was, everybody, it's always nice when we're

both happy when the deal is done and we both feel like we got something we needed. Connie, do executives ever rack their brains on the reasoning the other team's willing to move off a player? Because there's got to be something for every team where they're like there's something the players doing where they become expendable. So do you ever rack your brains or you just say, you know what, fresh start, let's make it happen? For sure, you always wonder why are they getting rid of these young players, you know?

And then you just have to go to your scouts and make sure, you know, Hoffman, one of our head scouts here, he actually was coaching these guys in Philly, so knows their personality, knows the type of people they are so that definitely helped you know and and sometimes it is just a fresh start a different place you know a new environment but it also you know when we talked to the guys it's a shock you know it does take a little time to adjust but you know for us you're always wondering

well I really like that player but why would they be giving up on him? So you can overthink it sometimes and overcomplicate it in your own mind, but for us, in the end, it just felt like this deal made total sense and it gives us an opportunity to see them and get to know them and them to do the same for us. Well, Greg Conroy, is it unprofessional to ask that question or if you ask it, do you just expect they're going to lie to you? In other words, can you not say, let's say you're the Lakers GM, why are you trading Luka Doncic?

Wouldn't you have to ask that when you think so, Craig, or what? We skirt around it a little bit. Is everything okay? You know, and sometimes it's just, hey, he's falling out of favor with the coach a little bit, or, you know, we're looking to shake it up, we're looking to free up some cap space. You know, we had cap space so that the money wasn't an issue for us.

And, you know, we just have to go back and say, okay, you know, it might not be working right now for them in Philly, but we feel like we can give them a real nice opportunity here to play a lot in really important roles and give them a chance to kind of reset with our group. And I think our coach does a great job with this. Ryan Huska's done an amazing job.

He brings guys in, makes them feel a part of it. And it was nice to see Frost Frost score a goal last night. I was like, okay, you know what? It's a good feeling. And then just want to keep moving forward and bringing them into the group. Well, we'll just tell you right now, Morgan Frost has a number one fan on this show because Brian Hayes loves the family and has watched him since he was a kid, correct Hayes? Absolutely.

And you know what? When we had the Brian Hayes appreciation night up at Berry, they were playing the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Morgan was on that team. I think he lit that game up too. So you guys saw him play. You scouted him back in junior. You guys probably loved him too. I'm sure of it.

We do. We love Morgan Frost. Yeah, for sure. I I mean he's got great hands and a nice skill set you know you have to get people for what they are he's not going to be running guys over but he's competitive wins draws and has a really really high skill set and high hockey you know high hockey IQ for sure Connie talk about your goalie I mean how good has Wolf been you know should we be giving him more love for a rookie of the year. I mean how good is wolf been? You know should we be giving him more love for rookie of the year?

Absolutely, I mean I've talked about it here, and you know with your platform. I would love to I mean I think the one thing is you know I've mentioned hey You know when you're playing forward defense There's games where you can get two or three points and lose you know six five But everything is good and still be a minus player. And, you know, but you got three points and you got two of them on the power play. That's one thing about with Dustin, you know, he has to win the games.

He doesn't get any kind of empty netters or power play points. And, you know, I think that's, I know he's a little bit older maybe, but definitely feel like he's a, he's uh... big big i mean it probably better one of our mvp of the year for sure to say the least in uh... you know i can't say enough about what he did the company to get the rest of team that we feel like every time he's in there we have a chance to win that you know i think that something i don't know if that works in the vote but uh...

if i had a vote i definitely be vote for for him and hopefully you guys can push him if you keep watching them because he played been excellent absolutely uh... leasing calgary plan of flames tomorrow night chat with the g m craig conroy and you know you referenced earlier that on the outside i think a lot of the hockey world was curious you know what your team was going to do this year how competitive they might be in you guys have either been in a playoff spot or lurking around one all season and obviously it's gotten to a point where there's no reason to believe

that won't continue. So I'm curious, you know, how you've obviously made the one deal. How do you approach the rest of the trade deadline knowing that your team has played the way it's played and it's built the way it's built? Yeah, I think, you know, even every day you're trying to figure out is there a way to make us better and if there is, again, it's age appropriate a little bit for us. You know, I don't see us going and getting a rental just for the run, but again, that can always change if the right player came up in the right situation and we're at the

deadline if you're in a really good spot and you feel like this one piece could do it, maybe you do it. But right now, I think you're just talking to teams, finding out the one thing you want to, you definitely, we have some guys in the American league that played really well that deserve call-ups and I just haven't been able to get them up yet. So you'd still like to see those guys at some point, but you know how it is, coaches, when you're having some success, they're not really changing the lineup that often, to be honest. But, yeah, we're looking to make the team better each and every day.

Well, you guys have, again, had a great run. It's going to be a fun one tomorrow night with the Leafs in town. So enjoy that. Best of luck, and we always appreciate you doing this. Thank you. Yeah, well, thanks for having me. Yeah having me at the least in town it'll be a you'll be interesting building to bar night yeah it always is it always is i hope they're not in their cheering that would make me sick

uh... godly here there are a lot of people who are okay i hear you know i don't blame you for that that i don't know yourself me a little sick too.