The Athletic Hockey Show - Flames GM Craig Conroy joins the show, Stars force Game 5 against the Golden Knights, a draft of current American-born players

Episode Date: May 26, 2023

Hailey and Sean discuss the Stars' win on Thursday night to avoid a sweep in the Western Conference Final and force a Game 5 against the Golden Knights. Then Craig Conroy, new GM for the Calgary Flames joins the show to discuss bringing winning back to Calgary, his offseason plans for UFAs, finding a new coach, naming a new captain and much more. To wrap up, a draft of current American-born players, with one person going rogue.Subscribe to The Athletic Hockey Show on YouTube: http://youtube.com/@theathletichockeyshowGet a 1-year subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/hockeyshowSign up for a Chime Checking Account today to link your paycheck. It only takes two minutes and doesn’t affect your credit score. Get started at http://chime.com/nhlshow.Download the Dave app from the App store right now or go to http://dave.com/nhlshow Sign up for an Extra Cash account and get up to 500 dollars instantly. For terms and conditions go to dave.com/legal. Instant transfer fees apply. Banking services provided by Evolve bank and trust. Member FDIC.Head to http://FACTORMEALS.com/nhlshow50 and use code nhlshow50 to get 50% off your first box.The right tone can move any project forward when you get it just right with Grammarly. Go to http://grammarly.com/tone to download and learn more about Grammarly Premium’s advanced tone suggestions.Check out all of the delicious options at http://nuts.com/hockey23. You’ll receive a free gift and free shipping when you spend $29 or more Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Hockey Show. Before we jump into this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show, I want to tell you about New York Times Audio, a new iOS app for New York Times news subscribers. It's got our show plus other great podcasts from the athletic exclusive shows, narrated articles, and more. New York Times Audio, download it now at New Yorktimes.com slash audio app. All right.

Welcome into another edition of the Friday athletic hockey show. Yeah. Welcome, welcome into the Friday athletic octagon. Today I'm in an elbow drive, Sean Chintilly. Just kidding. Welcome to the show. It's Haley Salvin and Sean Jantilly. You went from like zero to ten back down to zero right there.

Yeah. I got to keep my energy levels. regulated. Mm-hmm. For our fun interview of the day. We had Craig Conroy join the show today. He was really good. I'd never spoken to him before.

He's one of those guys who has the rep as, you know, one of the good dudes, good conversationalist, very accommodating. And somehow our paths never crossed. And I really enjoy talking to him for sure. You know him. You know him well. I know him pretty well for my two years in Calgary, yes. the first time I had an interview scheduled with Craig Conroy. We talked for over an hour and other media people kept walking by being like,

what are you guys still talking about? And I was just like, mm. I think he's just chatting. He's got that ability. I think we benefited to, to Calgary Flames fans specifically who've seen Craig Conroy do the media tour over the last few days. I think we benefited from talking to him. Friday morning here because he had a couple of days on the job. He's had some time to think about stuff.

And we kind of moved out of the press conference realm of things. So there's some interesting bits there for Flames fans in particular in our half hour, in our half hour talk with Craig. You know what it was good, honestly? It was nice talking for once to a good guy named Craig on the podcast. I'm not used to that. He was interested. He was engaged.

He was available. He was available. He wanted to talk to me. It was a weird feeling. He was nice. My goodness. I don't know how you do it on Tuesdays. Neither do I, honestly.

Craig Conroy's the new host of the Tuesday Athletic Hockey Show, actually. He's American. An American in Craig C. hosting a podcast with Sean G. You know what? I bet if you asked Pete Hanlon, who does a wonderful job, with the Calgary Flames, PR, communications, etc. He would do it.

He would get you Craig on Tuesday. And then tell the other Craig not to show up. Hit the road, big boy. Just don't come this week. Craig Conroy and I are going to talk about the Dallas Stars game seven. They push it to one. My stars.

I'm just kidding. Game seven. I don't know. What game five? Projecting. I don't know what the schedule would be like. By Tuesday it would be game seven if they, if they

maybe, potentially. Take it one game at a time. How much that game did you watch last night? All of it. Vegas, Dallas, all of it? Yeah, we're moving on from the, yeah, preamble.

I watched all of it. What'd you think? You know why? It's good. I don't watch that much of it. Really? I kind of zoned out. I had a headache.

Yeah, I watched all of it. I thought Vegas didn't look as dominant as they had in the previous few games that obviously put them up to like a commanding three nothing lead on the series. And I don't know how much of that. I think it's a combination of Vegas, maybe

taking their foot off the gas a teeny bit. But also Dallas showing up in a way that we haven't quite seen in this third round series. Ottinger looked better. They didn't have Jamie Ben, no Daddanov, a couple changes to the lineup.

Because of that. And they looked they played good. They played good desperate hockey because they played the kind of hockey that they needed to to extend the series and not get swept by Vegas, right? And I think, I mean, the Jason Robertson goal, we'd been talking so much about when is he going to kind of have his breakout? And I think we're watching it. Unfortunately, it was just happening in a series that they're down three nothing. But that was his third goal in four games in the third round of the playoffs. So Robertson,

and that goal was unbelievable. The hand-eye coordination, Aiden, Hill makes the first good save and then he taps it once, taps twice, it's in the back of the net, good timing, good hand-eye coordination, huge goal, big moment, Jason Robertson looks great. And then of course it's our favorite old man, Joe Pavalski with the game winner. Yes, what a miracle. He is a miracle that he's still standing. I think that was the first little hiccup that we've seen from Aiden Hill in a bit. And I'm not talking about the Robertson goal because like, whatever.

sometimes you just get beat. That's elite supreme hand-eye coordination. I thought that was the most interesting thing to come out of that though. I watched Aiden Hill and for the first time in a bit, it was like, oh, okay, there's this guy's, that's right,

this guy was a backup. But he made 39 saves last night. I don't know. There are some stuff that he was doing right where I was just like. Well, so yeah, when Aiden Hill's like kind of off, he almost like flops around in his net too much. And when he's playing well,

obviously he's reading the play, he's going post to post. He's not floundering in his crease. I thought Jesse wrote something really good about him a couple days ago, too, by the way. Just like in terms of his process and on that, Jesse, Jesse writes goal as well. He is one himself. That's why he's so weird. The weirdest, Jesse Granger. Everyone else who hosts a show on this podcast network is so weird, except for me.

That's it. And Sean. Mike Russo, so strange. Ian Mendez. Don't let the act fool you, folks. He's weird and mean. That's what everyone always says. Not a very normal, very nice accommodating man.

I think I need one more win from the stars to take any of this all that seriously, though. Like that felt like a dead cat bounced to me last night. I need one more. one more one have you never heard that saying you're looking at me like I'm like I just said something insane no okay look it up a dead cat bounce I don't think that I will okay why would I Google that it's a good point it's a saying I promise you but yeah I think we're all sort of in in wait in weight mode now it's always like you know how you know a team's cooked is when the NHL releases its schedule final it's cup final contingency plans that's how you know you're getting close

When games like, so things like this for me, it was either get swept or win in seven. Don't waste my time. Always, completely. Like if the same, I felt, I'm sorry Keynes fans, I felt the same way. Game four against the Panthers, I'm like, it's done. Oh, end this. It's a very competitive, compelling four game sweep. Can't be done.

Can't be it. The people you really need to think of are the media. As always, right? Media, as brave as it gets. I am so important. The real heroes. Apologies of people who have to make another Dallas to Vegas flight. It's tough.

Cold world out there. Shout out to the EMS workers. EMS, EMT. EmT. Shout out to them for working those games, but. Is there, yeah, right. Is there some weird name for them? My job.

are some weird name for them in Canada. I feel like EMT workers. I just have this vague memory when I worked in Oshawa. We were in the playoffs and it was an OT game. And I distinctly remember my boss slash friend Jessica saying, I need someone to call EMS. Emergency medical services. They're interchangeable. They're. She didn't actually need medical assistance. She was just stressed out. Do we have anything we want to say about Panthers hurricanes? We're kind of, we're, we're in a dead zone there. It's a day off. Yeah, the series is over.

Day off. We're in a dead zone there after the series ends. What am I doing? Panthers make the Stanley Cup final for the first time in 27 years. I listened to your interview on the, on the radio with Bill Lindsay yesterday. Yeah. Long time. It's a terrible.

Long time Panther, long time Panther broadcaster. No, I think guys like him, it gets lost in the shuffle, I think. The idea, because, you know, in a lot of ways,

the Florida Panthers are out of sight, out of mind. They haven't been particularly relevant for extended periods of time. It's been up and down with more down than ups. They had that fan base wrapped around their finger in the 90s,

though. Like, when they were, when they made the cup final, like, that's the proof in the pudding how much people will, latch on, right? And we saw that. That game four looked unbelievable. And talking about the fan base specifically, like, they've had to put up with some shit over the last, over the last,

oh, 25 or 30 years, right? So it's good to see a group of people get rewarded like that. And it's good to see someone like Bill Lindsay get to experience, too, because that guy's been, you know, he's as big a part of that organization throughout the years as really anybody. So it's fun. I enjoy it. I think I enjoy the Florida Panthers. Same. I think that's the thing to discuss, right? We're going to have a lot of time to talk about what comes next for the Carolina hurricanes. Like we don't need to dive into that right now. I think in the end, after all of the talk about maybe we made too much of the goal scoring thing,

they kind of showed us that they were who we thought they were when it mattered the most. Like the goals, when they needed it dried up in the Eastern Conference final. we have seen that before from this team that's something they're going to need to address in the off season. They've got a bunch of unrestricted free agents. Jordan Stalls, a UFA. They're going to have to either let both Freddie Anderson

and Auntie Bronte walk or keep one of them to insulate Pieter Ketchkov. So lots of little things to do. Spash and Ajo is one year away from unrestricted free agency. Do you lock him in this summer? Maybe. A lot of big questions.

So lots of little things. to do in Carolina, but in terms of the Panthers, they've been really fun to watch. They made the cup final. They weren't afraid to touch the president's trophy. And I loved Matthew. President's trophy, Prince of Wales. I keep saying President's trophy. You did that a couple days ago, too.

I know. It's stupid. I'm an idiot. It's fine. The important thing here about the Panthers is that they're showing to everybody that they do not, in fact, play in Orlando, Florida. Oh, my God. Yeah, I sent you that.

Well, there was a graphic from that. We won't name any names here, but it was a large. There was a graphic. A large, a large sport media company. In Canada, run by a telecommunications company. Yeah, that narrows it down to the same two options. I know. That's the joke.

That, ha ha. They tweeted a graphic saying like Panthers Stanley Cup final and they're over like a lake in Orlando. What they should have done What they should Like four hours away from sunrise What they should have done Was taking a picture of like

The Bahama Breeze restaurant That's across the street From the arena and sunrise Or whatever like the strip The strip mall that's on the edge of the swamp That's what they should have superimposed Under you know Matthew Kuch and Carter Rhegey

And whoever else Yeah whatever that bar is That everybody likes to drink at in Florida I said Florida very generally Yeah my bad I don't know the name of it. It's fine. Yep. So the Florida Panthers await in Orlando for their opponent in the Stanley Cup final Vegas, Dallas. That series is still going on after Dallas wins last night.

Let's get to our interview with Craig Conroy, though. We've talked about these teams enough. It's been weeks. Let's talk about the Calgary Flames with Craig Conroy. That's come out next. All right, so we are very excited to be joined by the new general manager of the Calgary Flames. It's Craig Conroy. He joins us now on the Friday show. Yeah, we call this Friday because sometimes we record on Thursdays or Fridays. It's the thing that I created that Sean doesn't think is very funny. So welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Haley. Sean, appreciate it. So nothing much to catch up on, really relaxed a couple of weeks in the life. How are you doing?

and congratulations and thanks for doing this. Well, thank you. No, it's, yeah, it's been a world when, you know, I think when the announcement came Tuesday, our amateur scouting meeting started Tuesday. And, you know, Brad always mentioned that it's going to be, if you're ever in the big chair, Connie, it's going to be busy. And I don't think I quite knew exactly what that meant.

That meant 435 messages in the first day. I was like, and I was not, I'm not even kidding about how many. I was like, my daughters were like, seriously, dad? And I said, well, I'm trying to get back. I mean, all night I was just, I feel bad. I was getting back to him late, you know, at midnight our time. So just keep texting people emailing. You felt you felt bad?

Like, oh my gosh. If I ever get 435 text messages, A, it's not going to be for anything good. In B, I'm not going to go out of my way to respond to them. That's, that's crazy. I made the rookie, I made the rookie mistake of sending you a congratulations message within the first 24 hours of the news. I was like that was so stupid he got so many texts there's no way it's like I'm getting big league by Craig Conroy oh and that's what I want anyone to think that I just I was and then you know when

you read one and you thought you responded and then you're like wait I just read them and I ah so now I know it's got the blue thing I just keep checking them off I respond when I look I've never had it usually it's like and you can do the copy and paste like hey thanks really appreciated, bang. Hey, thanks. Really appreciate it. Bang. If you get, if you get really sick of responding, just double, like, just hold the text and do like the thumbs up. I know. I wanted, you know what, everyone was so nice. I've been trying to. And I always put the name back in. Like, thank you. Name here. Yeah. Good guy. Good guy, Craig Connolly. So I wanted to ask about the interview process. I mean, we don't, we're not going to, we're not going to harp on this because I know you're,

certainly past that now, but how do you interview for a promotion in an organization that you've been with for as long as you've been with the flames? Were there like specific things you wanted to get across or was or because like you would on some level, there's a comfort level because everyone there knows you and you know everybody, but also I'd imagine there's certain parts of your personality that you want to, that you want to stress when you're interviewing for the big chair, right? Yeah, for sure. You know, the first thing I did, I did a resume. I mean, I know my resume has mostly the Calgary Flames and what I've done here, but I just wanted to make sure, you know,

they knew exactly everything that I've done, timelines, and then I kind of put like a mission slash vision statement for the team together. So what they, I kind of felt how I saw the team moving forward. And I just, you know, I just put all my thoughts together and just so I had it with me because, you know, I think my wife says the one thing,

Craig, a little, sometimes you can get off topic. So if I just have a bullet point thing of what I believe the team should be, how we're going to get to the point of hopefully making the playoffs every year and win in the Stanley Cup. So that's how I kind of went about it. But just like if I was going to go into a, you know, I guess to another team that didn't really know me that well. Right. I think it's interesting.

I mean, because we know from the, from Don Maloney's press conference, there were 35 candidates, multiple rounds of interviews, like, and it's almost very much. Like when you were a player, like you weren't handed anything in your career as a NHLer, right? Like you were drafting the sixth round and results playing over a thousand games and you represent your country. Does it almost make it a bit more? Obviously, it's meaningful getting a general manager job in this league, but it seems like you kind of did it the same way that you did as a player.

Does that, you know, make sense, make it more meaningful for you? Yeah, you know, I like, I've never had anything given to me. You know, when you're sixth round pickier, you're clawing and fighting and you play, you know, two years plus in the minors. And, you know, you're just trying to get your foot in the door in the league. And then when you get your opportunity, that's what I always said. If I get my opportunity, I'm going to make the best of it. And I try to do that here. You know, it was definitely, this process is a little different because I'm just a couple doors down from Don. And I, you know, he was respectful and he shut the door. And, you know, it's just a small office in here, though.

So I shut my door when I hear, you know, I could hear him doing the other interviews. I couldn't really hear what was, but I knew he was doing him. And I thought, yeah, I respect that. You know, they have to find Don's jobs to get the best person he felt for the job. And I totally understood that. And, you know, what, if he felt it wasn't me, you know, that's part of it. You know, so I was expecting, hey, I didn't know. I was just going to try to do everything in my power like I was as a player, put myself in,

and finally, hopefully get the job. And when he told me, I mean, it was, I almost, he, he did it where he gave me a kind of his recommendation to ownership and the president, John Bean. And so I read the letter the first time and I was like, what, what? And I read it the second time. And then I read it a third. And I was like, and I looked up and he's like, you went to college, right? Like you're taking, I'm like, I had to read it a lot.

I said, so he's like, I'm offering you the job. I'm like, so that's, yeah, I was. It was a good feeling. It was real. We did in the owner's suite and it felt special. You know, having the rink right there just somewhere where I felt so comfortable. I've been in, you know, thousands of times. So it was, it was special. It's great. I mean, how was, how was Craig Conroy, the front office person and now the general manager different from Craig Conroy, the player who played a lot of games, a lot of meaningful games in that market as well? You know, I think obviously it's still going to be the same person.

I mean, I think that's what I learned when I went into this position. The first few weeks, I wouldn't talk to the players. I would walk. I mean, literally, I went from that locker room a day ago, but I thought I'd have to be, you know, hard, mean. Jerome said, hey, what's, he called me over. He's like, you need to be you. You can't be what these other guys are. You have to be your own person.

He goes, you know what? You're right. So then I just started, you know, they're my buddies at the time. So we're just chit-chatting and having fun. And, you know, and I know there's a separation. I have to, in the end, I'm going to make some hard decisions. It's not that I don't like these guys. I've been traded, you know, I've been put on waivers.

I've been sitting in the friendly, you know, the one thing about I can, I feel like as a player, and because I was in the minors and I've been cut, you know, sent down and, you know, put on all those different situations. I know what these guys are going through. I mean, it's not easy, but I can relate. And I think when we talk, I can relate to pretty much every situation. I was never, you know, I wasn't like Steve Eisenman would have a different thing because he is a superstar. I mean, he's one of the greatest players of all time.

That was not me. That, you know, I was more meat and potatoes and, you know, try to do whatever I could for the team. And maybe a lot of times I was just a checking, you know, checker. When I got to Calgary, got to be a little bit more than that and get to play with Jerome and do all. of that. So, but I think when I, I can relate to every guy of the team, maybe not the top guy so much, but, you know, everybody else. And I think that, you know, that'll help me with this new job. Mm-hmm. I mean, you mentioned it yourself. You've responded to 500 text messages at the start of all this, but I think that speaks to something, honestly, about your reputation, you know,

league wide, where you do have that rep as being a great conversationalist and not a good person and a nice guy. how much of that, and maybe not even necessarily in your dealings with the players, but in your dealings with other execs, other decision makers, is that, does it, does it, does it feel like that might be something that, uh, that the reputation wise that, that carries over that people might underestimate you in some regard? Because I know Mark Bergerman talked about it specifically, because he had their reputation as being a joker and a prankster. And he said when he got the job in Montreal, like, he's like, great. Like, you can, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, he's if you look at me as the funny guy, that's awesome.

And, you know, we'll kind of take it from there. Is that something that's crossed your mind at all? Yeah, for sure. I mean, you think everybody thinks, you know, and the same thing. I play with Virgie. And exactly. But you know what? When it came on the ice, he's a competitor.

He's going to do whatever it takes to win. And I knew when he got the job in Montreal, you know, it's a great thing because people are going to want to gravitate towards them. They like them. it's easy to talk to him and i think he's going to know what's going on in the league because you know what when you when you call version you probably was probably the conversations were fun and you had a good time and you know but in the end he's he's he's going to do business and the same thing i hope you know a lot of the guys in the league i know some i played with you know bill

garen and i were roommates at the olympics i was i was getting i was going to bring up billy g next yeah yeah billy g i mean he was the first one to reach out he's i mean so to have those and to be able to, it's not just, you know, hey, we're all, I feel fortunate to be in the club of 32 people and it's a special thing. But the way these guys have already made me feel and the guys that I know, you know, Rob Blake, I play with in LA. It's just, it's not like you don't know, know them. Some guys I don't know, no, like I didn't play with them, but he played against Steve Eiser, Pat for Pete. You know what type of people they are and, you know, Kevin Adams, all these guys that really, it's an easy, transition for me and Billy Zito was great even you know in a playoff game before I did not I didn't

think any call you know and we have a relationship and you know I was like those Calgary flame guys are doing well yeah it's great enjoy Sam bed at over there yeah someone else someone else there yeah yeah so I think I think having those relationships but I know what you mean you know but I think it's a in the end we're going to We're going to do business together and we're going to be there. But it's just like being on the ice. You're going to compete and you want to do the best you can. But I think the relationships are good because then we can just, it's easy to talk to these guys.

And I enjoy talking to him. We're big fans of Bill Guerin on this podcast. We talk about him often, specifically his, the giant ice cream Sunday that he ate after winning the cup. I don't know if you've ever seen that picture. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It's like he's like he's eating it out of like this huge gallon of ice cream. It's just Bill Garan with like a huge ice cream Sunday after winning the cup. I think we bring it up on this show like once a month and all the listeners are going to hear this.

We'd be like, are you, Haley, couldn't just be professional in interview Craig Conway without bringing up the ice cream Sunday. Well, the best part is Billy, like when we're in the bubble, like Billy, obviously he got the job. He's in the bubble. and I'm thinking we spent every night so we actually got to know Billy really well because I'm like hey Billy wants to meet again he goes you and this Billy you love this guy

I'm like it's my room we got some history sorry and I think they have a really good relationship now so you know I'm saying I'm the one that brought them together but it's if you meet Billy once you're going to love him I mean it's he's just one of the best people I would love to see what the guy

say that work for him because I got to believe they would they would run through a wall for him. So, you know, I think when I think of our staff and what we're doing here, you know, I hope I can do whatever Billy's probably doing. I hope I can do it do it like him. It's a pretty good template for a guy who, you know, was playing not too long ago who had that rep as being, is being one of the one of the good guys in the league with a lot of connections. And you see how he's transitioned. I mean, who better to learn from than him, right? Yeah, it's great. And you know, that's the one thing. He said, it's going to be a lot. If you need help, Connie, I'm there for you.

And I know he means that. He really does. And I know, you know, Bill obviously had a lot of experience with the penguins, had to go to a different organization to get the big chair. So I'm glad to see that you were able to put in the 12 years in the Flames front office and become the Flames general manager versus doing that somewhere else. And I think it's great because we've had conversations before, Craig, about how you and Jerome used to talk about wanting to win in Calgary when you were players.

What is it about Calgary in that market, that team specifically? Like, why do you want to win with the flames? Like, where did that desire come from? And are you excited to have that opportunity to do this in this position now? Yeah, I mean, for me, it starts with the fans, the city. You know, they deserve it. They embrace this team. We've had some good years and bad years.

And, you know, they get upset with us a little bit at times. But rightfully so, they want to win. They want to be proud and rally around this team. And being a Calgaryan now for, I've been here almost two decades. So I want nothing more than them to have that fun. You know, I was watching, you know, as you watch the playoff games and some of the highlights, and you're thinking, I want Calgary to have that again. You know, like the O4 run, we haven't had that long run.

And I remember what it was like. It was, I can't even put in the words being down there after we'd meet Detroit in game six at home. I couldn't even hear, you know, and how excited they were. And then to go to the finals. And unfortunately, we weren't able to win. We had two chances. And that's the low point of my career, probably, those two games, because we weren't able to do it. But I want to bring that excitement back.

And I want to give them a championship. That's really what it's all about. And he really deserve it. Even the feeling last year in the first round of the playoffs, too, was unbelievable. The OT winner from Johnny in game seven. It's fun. You know what? The regular season is one thing, but when you get to the playoffs and you're there and just the excitement and the atmosphere,

it brings it up, you know, a hundred times more than it is during the regular season. So, and just when you go the pride around the city with all the jerseys and everybody there, in the sea of red, you know, I just think back, I want to bring, you know, you, you want them to be proud of you and you want to bring a winner to Calgary. That's, that's really the, and a cup. I mean, that's, that's really it. It's been too long. I'm glad to ask, is that a conversation that you and Jerome have maybe revisited in the last, in the last week or two, as far as, as far as winning together? Well, Jerome and I always, you know, that's what I said. We've always talked about doing something together. I know, you know, he's got, Jerome's a busy guy,

and he's got rink Kelona where his son Joe goes, he's, he's committed to. to next year. But, you know, I would love to have Jerome at some point be with me because it's kind of, I don't know if that's the dream, but for me it is. I mean, we would love to do something together at some point. Remember Jamie McLennan told me that the relationship between you and Jerome McGinnla is like an old married couple. We fight a lot.

You know what? I mean, we fight each other. But in the end, it's all about we push each other. And even like, that's where people said, oh, you guys get along. I mean, even when we're on the bench, he would be not happy with things I was doing. I was not happy with things he was doing during the game. But that's what made it work so well. And in the end, just come together.

But I knew if there was something on the ice that happened, he'd have my back. I would have his back. And yeah, we're, yeah, we probably are like an old merry couple for sure. Like fighting over Scrabble in the locker room. Oh, we battle over anything. You said anything we compete at, we want to beat each other. And that's the best part because we're so competitive. A video game, like you said, Scrabble, anything we do, it's always golf.

He's just a better golfer than me, which makes me crazy. So I want to play ping pong or something else. Yeah, no more golf, no more golf. Cycle, cycle that one out. Bowling. Who wants a bowl? Pickle ball. Let's go.

Go on. I like that. A lot of a couple. I'm going to use that. Yeah, yeah. I think it was the story I did before he was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It's like getting all the stories. It was when we had our hour long sit down about Jerome.

Yeah. And I asked Jamie and he was like, they're like an old married couple. I was like, yeah. That checks out. Everything I've heard so far. That makes a little sense. Yeah, I like that. That's a nice little coat I dropped it up in their package.

Yeah. So I mean, not to keep you for too long here, Craig, but, you know, because you've done so many interviews and you had the lengthy availability when you were introduced as GM, but one of the kind of big takeaways from that first availability, I think, is, you know, looking at this summer because we know that there is a pretty lengthy to-do list. Some of the work has started. You've been in amateur scouting meetings.

There's a coaching vacancy. And you said that you don't want to go into next season with seven unrestricted free agents. So looking at the guys ahead who are UFAs in 2024 and how you kind of learned from last summer with Johnny going with the Matthew situation. How do you think you're going to be able to apply some of the knowledge that you learned last year with the guys who are going to be UFAs in 2024? Well, I think the first thing is really to find out where their minds at. Do they want to be here in the Calgary Flame? And if they do, you know, the one thing about all seven guys, I have good relationships. they're very honest.

They're going to tell me the truth. And that's all I can ask them to do. If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, I'll deal with that. The one thing I like all seven guys, there's seven really good players. And if for some reason they don't see a fit here, I just hope they're honest with me and let me know.

And if they do want to be back, then I hope we can get to the table sooner than later and see if we can get them signed. That's the real key. It's going to be the communication. and that's what I've always talked about. Brad's done a great job. I think with Johnny,

I do think he wasn't sure if he wanted to come back or, you know, those are tough decisions. And it went to the end and obviously, even probably 10 minutes before he told us, I thought we were going to get it done. And that was a heartbreaker, you know, because I thought, you know,

my thing to him was, and we have the same agent, you know, was I thought he was going to be the greatest flames of all time with Jerome. I mean, maybe he wouldn't score more goals and drone, but he more assists, more points. Al McKinnis has the most assists here. I think he would have passed that. Just the legacy to know he's going to be in the rafters.

What the city meant to him and what he meant to the city. Like I just, I really thought it was going to get done. But that was a good. You know, if anyone thought it was going to get done, it was me. And I think I even said it, which I learned a lesson. I might have said it during the year that, hey, we're going to get this thing done. It's a deal I might have said. And I said, well, I'll never say that again because I don't.

And that was, it was a learning thing for me. And that's, even though I've been doing it at that point for 11 years, I read the situation wrong. I really did. And, you know, and Johnny, you know, Johnny was one of the first people that text me, which was really nice. Because I still, you know, I would babysit his dog. You know, we had a relationship like that. But I know, this is a business. And I, and there was a lesson learned.

And I'll, I'll take that move forward. Do you feel like this off-season, I feel like, look, from the outside, I look at the job that you have to do, and I feel like it feels like a balancing act between being proactive, but also not overreactive to what happened last season, because there's so many good pieces there,

and you guys had so much stuff go as wrong as it possibly could last year on the ice. How do you balance that between, you know, appreciating what you have there, staying the course, believing in the road, that you've laid out for yourself, but also recognizing like, okay, there might be points where we can improve or weaknesses that we can, you know, build on from last year heading into next. Yeah, I mean, I do think the team, we under, we underachee, I sure. We know that all those one goal games, you know, you look, it wasn't,

we actually had more points in Florida. So not saying that would have happened for us if it wasn't a great year. And the bottom line is there are going to be some changes. And, you know, we know that. with those seven UFAs, just with the cap situation, we're going to have to make a couple moves. You know, not saying it's going to be those guys. It's going to have to be, there's going to have to be something

because we need to make sure, you know, if the cap only goes up the million that they say, you know, we're going to be tight, tight against the cap. But we have a very good team. Do I think if we can bring the same team back? Yeah, I believe a team. I believe there was a playoff team last year. But with that said, I want to get some youth in the lineup.

I'm not going to force youth in the lineup. They need to be ready. But when you have the best team in the American League at the end of the season, unfortunately, we just got knocked out of the playoffs. There's some young players that are ready that have been in the minors two, three years. And, you know, those are the things that come in into camp. I want to give him a chance because when Pellee was here this year, just the excitement that he brought.

Yeah. It's got great energy. Yeah, it's great energy for the team. And I think if you can bring some of those guys in, they don't know losing is a bad thing. They're just so excited to be in the NHL that it's good for the room. I truly believe that. I was loved when young guys came to the room and brought that energy, you know,

because it made me feel young again. And as I was getting older, I needed that. It's funny because this is essentially, it's different because it's women's hockey, but with the women's world championships that just happened a couple months ago, the U.S. team, they got younger. They were like, we're going to keep. Luz into Canada, let's inject some youth into this lineup, and they want a gold medal. And a lot of the veterans on that team were saying, like, having their perspective and,

like, their youthful energy and the fresh look on the game has been so much more fun to go to the rank with. Like, the veterans can stabilize in the moment when you need that, but then the youth can, like, make it fun and exciting again and worked out for the U.S. women's national team. Well, it's funny, I'm part of the U.S. World Championship team right now. And that's one of the things. You know, David Quinn, the coach was saying, hey, we can, let's get some youth in here. Let's have some fun.

I coach the team last year. Let's bring in use. So when we put the team together, you know, Chris Clark's a GM. And as we were going through it, we said, hey, let's try, you know, David said, let's get some younger guys in here. We'll get some speed. We'll have fun, you know, and they're going to be hungry. They want to be over here.

Coronado is in that mix yeah yeah like you'd be able to you know and obviously I had a little bit it's nice to get Coronado in you put your put your thumb on the scale but yeah but then to see how well the team's done over there and yeah reports and how how close this team is and exciting it is you know we'll see what happens I mean if both teams win I'm Canadian and American I got both passport so if both teams win it'll be a you know obviously I hate to say it, but I'm team USA. There we go. Okay, I was waiting for it.

I'm very, very happy down here in Pittsburgh. Yeah. I hear you say that, Craig. I was worried. You know, it's just exciting. It's just exciting that when you look at those young guys and I'm thinking, okay, it does make sense. You know, I'm hoping kind of moving forward, that's going to be what helps our team too.

One of the other kind of nuggets to take away from some of these availability, Craig, is, you know, the captaincy. You guys haven't had a captain in Calgary for the team. the last couple years, it looks like that's something that is going to be more of a priority this summer. I guess I'm curious, like, are you just like waiting for someone to take the sea from you like Jerome did? Well, you know, every team I've ever played on, we've had a captain. Yeah. And I think, I think you need that one person in the locker room that can go to the coaches, be that conduit where, okay, if the players have a problem, they can take it to one person. Because

to go in as a group. Sometimes people get defensive and it doesn't work. And I was telling a story the other day. When we were in the bubble, they did a kind of a mural or picture of all the captains that were in the bubble. And I thought, imagine if we, you know,

if we didn't have a captain, like it'd be weird. Like, I guess they would put one guy on there. But, you know, just, you really do need that.

It's a Canadian market. Someone's got to be the spokesperson for the team. And I know it's a lot of work. And you know what? You're in the media. more than you're not, you know, but then you still have the other guys that need to support them. We're going to have a leadership group, but I would love to see, well, we're going to have a captain of that leadership group.

The other kind of bit of outstanding business you have, so you have to hire a head coach. So I'm just wondering what the timeline is there and maybe what you're looking for in terms of the person you do end up hiring, like the skill set, you know, the personality type. What's the, what kind of boxes are you looking to check? You know, I think the first, I've been reaching out, first you get permission from teams and then, you know, going through that process, making phone calls, getting people, you know, so I do have some meetings scheduled for next week. So we'll start the interview process next week, so which will be nice. You know, I think I'm looking for someone that, you know, is a good communicator, someone that can motivate. He's a motivational guy and really inspire the team.

You know, I want him to be able to, you know, want the team to have fun. want to be a team that enjoys coming to the rink, but I also believe that there needs to be accountability. Like, players want to be held accountable. I wanted to know what I'm doing right, wrong. So I want that to be part of, you know, my head coach. Obviously, I'd like to take, be a little bit more freewheeling offensively, but on the defensive side, I want structure. I just want structure because when I play defense, I want to know where everybody is all the time. but when you get over that red line, the players nowadays are so creative

and they're so much fun that you got to kind of just let them do what they do best. And hey, they might make mistakes and turn pucks over. And I've always said, if you turn pucks over, you back check. You know,

it's not that difficult. You just work hard to get back, you know, and that's what I'm hoping for the coach. And obviously, as you work through the process, it'll get fine-tuned what I kind of would like to see and what the coach is,

vision is for the team and hopefully we come together but we're going to be uh we're going to be i'm not going to be the boss over him we're going to be a partner you know we're going to with the players coaching staff we win and lose together and that's what i want to bring to the team in terms of the defensive part of that mackenzie weggers looked you know as the canadian i'm just going to mention mackenzie wegers looked very good for team canada so seems like you've got some guys who can play that style and do it well you know mackenzie really the second half of the year was excellent. And then to go over there, you know, you watch the games, he's done a great job. It's, uh, it's been fun to, fun to watch him for sure. All right. So I guess the last question for

you, Craig, because we did, uh, Pete's going to be so mad at me. Take you more. Just kidding. Uh, Pete's great. He won't be angry. What, uh, what makes you the most optimistic about this kind of new era for the Calgary Flames with yourself as the GM? You've got Dave Nones as the senior VP of hockey operations. Chris Snow and Brad Pascal get new appointments and extensions with the organization. You'll have a new coach. There'll be some changes. Like what makes you optimistic about this next kind of time here with the flames? You know, I think the one thing is we still have a great group of guys here. And I think that not every one of them is upset with how things went last

year. So you know when you go home and that summer, you're just thinking, okay, when you're training, when it's getting tired, you're like, you know what, I'm going to push myself through this. So just on that front alone, I think for them coming back with the attitude, say, hey, you know what, I'm going to be better. That gives me optimism. And then I think if we can just put those other little things in place, you know, with a new head coach, a different kind of voice in that room, I think it's going to be a big help too. So all those things together along with maybe adding a few young pieces is going to be,

is what I'm excited about moving forward. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for doing this. We appreciate your time and good luck with the offseason in your first year as GM. Yeah, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks for having you on. Good seeing you again.

All right. So thanks again to Craig Conroy for doing that. And apologies. I couldn't not bring up the ice cream Sunday. I'm a little embarrassed. I wouldn't have done that if it was like Pat Rebeak. Yeah, right. You know?

It's just. I know Craig Conroy decently well, even though he did not respond to my congratulations text. Well, he got 500 over, whatever. Yeah, I mean. I couldn't not bring up the ice cream cone and I pulled up the picture. I was going to, I was going to send it to him during the interview. I was like, I'm going to not. You got to just cut your losses there.

In the video of that, which is, I'm sure on YouTube. I don't know if I, like, actively rolled my eyes or, like, like, looked over to the side. In the video, you could see my eyes light up when he brought a Bill Garon. I said he's going to do it. Googling Bill Garen ice cream cone. Ice cream Sunday. Sunday. Conroy laughed when I said, have you seen the picture of him after winning a cup with ice cream?

Because he knew. Craig Conroy knew that there's probably some picture that's funny out there. It's bigger. It's bigger than, Craig, it's a bigger than a normal Sunday cup. See, that's what makes it funny. It's what makes it funny. Funny ice cream. Yeah, whatever.

Don't make me feel bad for that. I thought it was a funny moment for our dear listeners. You're the one who's obsessing over it. It was, I forgot about five seconds after it happened. Let my intrusive thoughts win. And then I immediately am like, you're so stupid. All right. Why'd you do that?

We don't need TikTok mental health. corner with Haley Selvian here in the third. My beige flag is that I say stupid things when I'm delulu. Okay. All right. I don't even know what half of that means. Anyways, thanks to Craig Conroy. Yeah, we're going to do a draft today.

So the genesis of this draft, there's been much debate over forced. Forced debate, some would say. Yeah. It's kind of silly debate. Everyone's, because Matthew Cucchuk is playing so well for the Florida Panthers in the playoffs, lots of people are thinking, is he the best NHL? Oh, God. The best American-born NHLer right now. And so we thought. Yeah, right now because today on May 26th, yes, he certainly is the best one right now. You know what I mean, Sean. I think the next best option, like the debate is between Matthew Cuch and Jack Eichael at this point in time. save it for the draft. So that's what we're going to draft.

We are drafting American-born NHLers today. Sean Danielle and myself, we're going to go three rounds. We can pick any position. We can pick any age. If you want Joe Pavelsky, do it. I don't care that he's old. Do it. So we're going to draft.

Chris Chelyos. Yeah. No, it has to be active players. That's why I said right now. I didn't mean on May 26th. I meant in the NHL right now. Best American-born players. Gotcha.

Danielle did the little picked her names out of a hat. So I get the first overall pick. Sean gets number two. Danielle goes number three. We'll snake draft it. Everybody ready? Let's go. Yes.

I'm going to take my full five minutes to deliberate on my first overall selection. We do not have the time for that today. Don't make me edit out five minutes of dead air. My God. You mean don't make you edit out five minutes again? Yeah. Just like, last week.

Yeah, like a few minutes ago where I started hitting myself in the forehead because I forgot what I wanted to say. I'm going to take Matthew Cuttrak. Oh, you did it. She did it. Oh, my God. What was I going to? What did you, what did I do?

Did you think I was going to, who else should I have taken? Now I'm, now I'm nervous. No, I just, I'm surprised, I'm surprised, I'm surprised you pull the trigger. Why would you be surprised by that? Because Austin Matthews exists and he is my, he is my second overall pick. I'm glad you made the choice for me. I was, I would have agonized over who to pick first overall between them because. Recency bias.

Recy bias. Recy bias. Love to build down the middle. But I also just like Matthew Kachuk. like aesthetically I I prefer the way he plays hockey I like his personality more like but my reasoning for

my I mean my reasoning to go Kachuk first overall is I'm just trying to think of like when it matters most who's gonna who's gonna get you there and who's gonna take you further and that's recency bias speaking but right now it's Matthew Kachuk it's a reasonable choice to make and like I said I'm glad that you're the

that had to make it because it just made it made it pretty easy for me. Yeah. I don't know. I honestly don't know what I would have done. I'll take the side of it. That's fine. Danielle? All right.

Well, she's going to take Trevor's egress. She's just waiting. No, I have a, I have a system. And there's a reason why. She's taking a goalie. Yeah, there's a reason why I says pick any position. Mm-hmm. She's taking a goal.

I'm going. Con the Hellen Buck, Jake Gottinger. Oh. Danielle, who's going to score goals? Who's going to play goal for us? That's the question. Oh, we love it. I don't care.

We love it. I can outscore my problems. American board goalie is the highest form of hockey player. This is like in a two QB, like in a two QB football league taken two at the turn or something. I love it. Right. I love it. That's me taking Patrick Mahomes in the first round.

And also, too, if it's fantasy football, you should be able to take seven quarterbacks if you want. It's your. fantasy. Mm-hmm. But then there's no spot. There's no spot to put them. No, it doesn't make sense. There's no roster spot for set of quarterbacks.

If this were, if this were a fantasy hockey draft, an actual fantasy hockey draft, the, the process would be like undeniable because you're getting two guys who are really good and both going to start like 60 games a season. I love it. Next. Okay. That's not what I was expecting to happen here, but that's okay. I'll take Jack Hughes.

I figured he certainly would have been off the board. I thought you were going to go Jack Hughes in one of the goalies. Not a bad second line center for my American hockey team here. 42 goals. Leads the league in fan cams. Couldn't be happier with my number two pick. This makes it easier because I would have sat here for a while and been screamed at trying to decide on the next pick.

So with Jack Hughes off the board, I'm going to take Jack Eichol. Okay. How much of that you think has to do with the way he's played for Vegas so far in the playoffs last few weeks? You mean how well he's played now that he's not recovering from a neck injury? Totally. Yeah. You're talking to you're talking to some, like I've I've gassed up Jack Eichol at every possible turn. I love the pick.

I love the pick. I'm just saying like. Who else do I take in that spot? I'm asking you specifically, Haley Salvin, if you feel differently about Jack Eichol now than you did a month ago. I need a center. You just took that one that I wanted.

I don't care about that. I'll get I'll get, I'll get, I'll get, I'll get, I'll get Bobrovsky or something. Bovrovsky. I need a center. And the other top centers, I guess I could have gone with like a Dylan Larkin. See, you're agonizing, you're agonizing over this now.

You're second guessing yourself. Well, you did this to me. I don't feel bad about it. Don't make me feel bad about this. You have another, you also have another pick here. I know, I'm trying to decide. I'm trying to decide on that. Mm-hmm.

Hmm. Do I just complete my top line and then ignore every, because I don't care about the other positions. Like, who do I want on the wing, on the line with, Jack Eichel and Matthew Cichicka. You're just trying to get the three best players you can put together clearly. This isn't a top line thing, right?

No, I'm just deciding on how I'm going to pick this. We all have to fit strategies, okay? Yes, okay. Yeah, shut up. Daniel took two goalies. I love it. Name someone. This is this is...

I'm trying. This is how you end up picking Frank Vitrano with here or something. Oh, shit, sorry. Jason Robertson. Okay. Lots of really good players at the top of the list that we're all staring at here. I choose Adam Fox. Why not?

That dude's going to win another Norris, maybe? Not this year. He's going to get votes. Right? He's a finalist, isn't he? Yeah. Yeah, whatever. He's good.

Okay, thank you. I want a perpetual Norris finalist in the mix here at the risk of, you know, past, over a lot of really talented fellas at the top of this year. Thought about it. That would have been fun. Cachuk, you should, why didn't you? Come on.

You could have gone. I panicked. You were yelling at me. I was going to go for Goddrow. Reunite Johnny and Matthew. I was going to go Zegris because he's young and fun and he's the face of Chipotle

in Southern California. Yes. Those famous Southern California burritos like Chipotle. When I think of burritos in Anaheim, I think of Chipotle. Yeah. Danielle? All right. Well, I have Hellabuck.

I have Ottinger. I need an eBug. Jeremy Swayman. Oh, Danielle. This is great. This is great. This wasn't the point of the draft. There is no point to the draft.

There is no point. You know, who won? last week. Make your own meaning. The draft has no inherent meaning outside of that which we assigned to it. The American goalies didn't win you an Olympic medal, though. Olympic gold. What did Ryan Miller do for you?

What did Ryan Miller do for you? It's a long time ago. A silver. And you know what? I'll give you one free pass there. If you talk shit about Ryan Miller on this podcast ever again, I'm out. We're going to the octagon show. Well, the point of this was to debate who the best American player is right now.

It's Matthews versus Kachuk. Yes. Yeah. I was about to say that. Mm-hmm. Stop. Who do we think it is? I think in terms of cold rationality, I still have to go Matthews, just because of the

unreal track record over the last. over the last few years, but like, again, it's pretty close to being a coin flip, I think, objectively here. They're to-to-to-do-do-do-do. They're two totally different players. Totally. Right. Toots.

But they're both unbelievable five-on-five players. Like, they're young, the productions, like, whatever. They check a lot of boxes. And, like, aesthetically, if you like what Matthew's done or if you put a ton of stock and if you put a little extra emphasis, maybe on what he's done here, you're like, pick him. It's fine.

I'm trying to be, like, I'm just trying to be, you know. You're trying not to enrage Leaves fans. Yeah, that's me. Always, always looking to stay on the good side of Leaves fans. Mm-hmm. I should have passed. I should have picked something else. Yeah, you ruined the bit.

Danielle wouldn't have taken him? I could have passed on Matthews in, right, and then. Yeah, he would have been available. Gotten them back in round two. Yeah. Yeah, if you would have thought about Daniels. I mean, you got Matthews and Hughes. So I had Cichuk, Matthew Cichuk, Jack Eichael, Jason Robertson,

Sean, Austin Matthews, Jack Hughes, Adam Fox. I think Sean's probably going to win. And then Danielle got Connor Hallibuck, Jake Onger, and Jeremy Swainman. She did well. We're going to run away with this. Number three in goals, number one in your heart. Uh-huh. Yeah.

It's going to be really hard to score. I don't know. I'll just get Bobrovsky or something. It seems to be working out well this time of year. I love recency bias. Clearly. Whatever happens last week is full and true and accurate forever. Goldfish brain is in full effect here. Yep. Thanks. I'm the same way. We'll see who won. I won last week and that was quite a shock. We served that one up for you. Whatever. Oh, you didn't. You picked the bands that you like that nobody else did. Exactly. That's why you won. Yeah.

See everyone at Riot Fest. Uh-huh. Okay. That's the end of the show for today. Thanks again to Craig Conroy. Thanks Danielle for drafting goalies. Always here to do it. That's my job.

That's my job. That's right. You get to keep your goalie card. And thanks everyone for listening. Just a reminder, if you're not an athletic subscriber, you can join us at theathletic.com slash hockey show to get an annual subscription for $2 a month for 12 months. Goodbye, Sean. Goodbye, Danielle.

Thanks, everybody.