Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy inherited the big chair from his predecessor, Brad Treliving, in May 2023. Suffice it to say, the hockey club was in a transitional period, and it had some gaps in its reserve list.

When Conroy took the reins, he began the process of addressing some of the deficiencies in the club’s organizational roster.

The 2025 edition of the NHL Draft, conducted in a decentralized manner this past Friday and Saturday, was Conroy’s third at the helm. He made eight selections, bringing him up to 24 draft choices as GM. But while past drafts saw the Flames take a bit of everything at times, the 2025 NHL Draft saw Conroy and his scouting staff drill down on centres.

Speaking to the media following the conclusion of the draft on Saturday, Conroy reflected on the team attempting to address their depth in the middle of the ice.

“I know we talked a lot about centres and, you know, it might not be next year, but it might be a little bit, but I feel very comfortable,” said Conroy. “We have some really, really good centres coming.”

Six of the eight players the Flames selected on Friday and Saturday were forwards. Four of the six are listed as centres – Cole Reschny (18th overall), Cullen Potter (32nd overall), Theo Stockselius (54th overall) and Yan Matveiko (211th overall). And head amateur scout Tod Button suggested that Aiden Lane (176th overall) could play up the middle, too.

When Conroy was asked to summarize the class, you can imagine what the main theme was.

“I would say maybe the draft of the centres,” said Conroy. “We got so many centres in this draft, but I think we tried to, we want to take players that we thought were complete players that can help us with skill, hockey sense, speed. You know, the one thing I know people are going to say, maybe some of the guys aren’t as big, but that’s okay, because they compete. They have big hearts and they’re going to battle.”

All-in-all, the Flames selected four players that scored at over a point-per-game pace in 2024-25 with their primary teams: Reschny, Stockselius, Wyttenbach and Lane. And Potter was quite competitive offensively in a pretty stingy NCHC college conference. (The team also added some big defensive players in third-rounder Mace’o Phillips and seventh-rounder Jakob Leander, and a rapidly-improving Russian centre in Matveiko.) Attempting to add skill was definitely a focus for the Flames, and the hope is the offensive players chosen can translate their production going forward.

“Well, we’re going to need them to,” said Conroy. “That’s the one thing I think when you look at where we struggled this year, it was our goal scoring. It was putting up points on a nightly basis. And I think if you look at the last two drafts, we really are addressing that. I know it takes a little bit longer for guys to be able to come in and make an impact in the NHL. But in our mind, hey, we don’t want to rush them, but they’re on their way. We do believe these guys are going to come and be able to push for spots sooner than later. And when they do, we think they’re going to be offensive drivers for our team.”

It’s impossible to solve all your problems at once. Conroy attempted to address skill at the defensive position by acquiring Hunter Brzustewicz and drafting Etienne Morin, Zayne Parekh and Henry Mews. He tried to add some skill to the wings with Sam Honzek, Aydar Suniev, Matvei Gridin, Andrew Basha, Jacob Battaglia and Trevor Hoskin.

At the 2025 NHL Draft, Conroy turned his attention to the centre position. Time will tell if his attempt to solve that problem will be successful, but the approach he applied certainly seems prudent in the immediate aftermath of the selections.