On April 17, following the departure of incumbent general manager Brad Treliving, the Calgary Flames began their search for a general manager. On Friday, May 19, after president of hockey operations Don Maloney whittled a 35-person long list down to eight individuals for interviews, and then to four finalists, assistant general manager Craig Conroy was told he would be the club’s next GM.
But he couldn’t talk about it to anybody until the press conference to announce it, which wouldn’t happen until Tuesday, after the Victoria Day long weekend. Suffice it to say, Conroy’s passed his first big challenge of his managerial regime.
Working in the Flames’ offices at the Saddledome on Friday, Conroy recalled on Tuesday being summoned by Maloney to the owners’ suite and handed a piece of paper.
“He gave me a piece of paper and said ‘I want you to read that,’ and it was his recommendation to John Bean and ownership that I would be the next general manager,” said Conroy. “You know what, when I read the whole thing, I was kind of clueing in. I wasn’t sure what I was reading at first. It was pretty exciting.”
“To shed some light on it, the document I gave him I gave it to the ownership a week before,” said Maloney. “I wanted him to know that this wasn’t just last night’s decision.”
Maloney joked about Conroy’s initial lack of understanding about what he was reading: “I was wondering. I thought he went to college. It took him forever to read the thing.”
(Yes, shots fired at Conroy’s alma mater, Clarkson University.)
The new GM has a lengthy to-do list, starting with amateur scouting meetings with the Flames’ scouting staff over the next three days at the ‘Dome.
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