Two years in: Grading Craig Conroy’s trades as Calgary Flames general manager

With the NHL draft and free agency in the rearview mirror, Calgary Flames General Manager Craig Conroy now has one primary goal for the rest of the summer. Trading Rasmus Andersson. The veteran defender and longtime Flame has reportedly made it known he wants to move on and won’t be signing an extension in Calgary.

Andersson has been one of the hottest names on the trade market this summer, and how his situation unfolds will be a massive moment for the future of the Flames. Conroy simply has to nail the return. So far, he’s been hit or miss on the trade market through two years. With what we know now and with hindsight in mind, let’s grade every trade the Flames’ general manager has made so far.

Traded Tyler Toffoli to New Jersey for Yegor Sharangovich and a 2023 3rd-round pick (Aydar Suniev)

Just a month after being hired, Conroy pulled off a pretty major deal, trading the Flames’ leading scorer, Tyler Toffoli, for Yegor Sharangovich and a third-round pick. So far, this trade has seen its ups and downs.

In the year after the deal, it looked like a homerun. Sharangovich burst onto the scene in Calgary with 31 goals and 59 points. The following year, he took a huge step back, though, with only 17 goals and 32 points. The wild card, of course, is Aydar Suniev, who was taken with the third-round pick Calgary received. He’s still a couple years away, but right now he looks like a player who could be a solid middle-six winger in Calgary.

Given Toffoli was a flop for the New Jersey Devils and they ended up trading him not even a year later for two draft picks, this deal was clearly a win for Calgary. If Sharangovich can bounce back to his 2023–24 form and/or Suniev hits, it will become a full-on fleece job.

Grade: B+

Traded Nikita Zadorov to Vancouver for a 2024 5th-round pick (traded) and a 2026 3rd-round pick

When this trade went down, there was quite the uproar. Nikita Zadorov had developed into a fan favourite in Calgary under Darryl Sutter. The veteran coach was able to turn the giant defender’s career around, and he fit like a glove in his system. For this reason, many believed Zadorov should command a large return on the market. However, the Flames ended up only getting back a third-round pick in 2026 and a fifth-round pick in 2024.

At the end of the day, would you have liked a better return given Zadorov’s reputation? Probably, but the reality is he’s never been more than a good bottom-pairing defender. He also ended up leaving the Vancouver Canucks in free agency a few months later, anyway.

Grade: B

Traded Elias Lindholm to Vancouver for Hunter Brzustewicz, Andrew Kuzmenko, Joni Jurmo, a 2024 1st-round pick (Matvei Gridin), and a 2024 4th-round pick (traded)

This was one of those deals that you just knew was a fleece from the moment it happened. This remains the best trade of Conroy’s tenure, and it isn’t really close. With the trade deadline just over a month away, the Flames got an absolute haul for a player in Elias Lindholm, who was in the midst of one of the worst seasons of his career.

Getting an asset like Hunter Brzustewicz, as well as a first-round pick for an expiring asset who didn’t want to be in Calgary, was tidy work from Conroy. Brzustewicz is still just 20 years old and has become one of the Flames’ top prospects after a 32-point rookie season in the AHL in 2024–25. The Flames then picked up Matvei Gridin with the first-round pick, who just recently won the QMJHL rookie of the year award.

That’s two franchise building blocks in Brzustewicz and Gridin, not to mention Andrei Kuzmenko—who was used to acquire Morgan Frost—and the fourth-round pick, which was dealt for the pick that turned into Luke Misa. On top of the great return, Lindholm never fit in with the Canucks and left in free agency. This past season, he had just 47 points for the Bruins. There’s a good chance the Flames are going to get one, if not multiple, good, young NHL players out of this deal.

Grade: A+

Traded Chris Tanev to Dallas for Artyom Grushnikov, 2024 2nd-round pick (Jacob Battaglia), conditional 2026 3rd-round pick (condition not met)

Although not a complete miss, the Chris Tanev deal was always a bit of a letdown. Tanev was being courted by as many as 12 teams before being dealt, yet the eventual return certainly didn’t echo that. The Flames reportedly had a first-round pick on the table from a couple teams, but only if they took a cap dump back as well.

In the end, Conroy decided to avoid any cap dumps and settled on a second-round pick instead. The conditions on the additional third-round pick weren’t met. Instead of another pick, Conroy added young defender Artyom Grushnikov to the return. At this point, his upside seems to be quite low, and he’s already been passed over by multiple defenders on the depth chart. You probably would’ve liked another draft pick in this deal instead of an AHL defender already in his D+3 year.

The savior for this deal will need to be Jacob Battaglia, the player the Flames took with Dallas’ second-round pick in 2024. He had a monster D+1 and is now considered one of the team’s top prospects. If he can pan out and become a full-time NHLer, this trade would be considered a win. If not, we may look back on this deal as a pretty big whiff by Conroy.

Grade: C+

Traded Noah Hanifin to Vegas for Daniil Miromanov, 2026 1st-round pick, 2025 3rd-round pick (Kirill Zarubin)

If the Lindholm trade was a massive success for Conroy, the Noah Hanifin trade a couple of months later was the complete opposite. The situation was mishandled from the get-go, and it led to the Flames receiving a woeful return for what should have been a super valuable asset. Conroy simply waited too long into the season to trade Hanifin, and it allowed his agent, Pat Brisson, to strongarm the Flames and force a trade to where Hanifin wanted.

The hope at the time was that the Flames added an underutilized player in Daniil Miromanov, who was just buried on a deep Vegas Golden Knights blue line. Considering Miromanov is just six months younger than Hanifin and had just 29 NHL games under his belt, this was a massive gamble by Conroy. That gamble hasn’t paid off at all. Miromanov struggled to find a home on a weak Flames blue line this past season and was regularly scratched. There were even rumours the Flames were looking to ship him out of town at the deadline this year.

On top of the Miromanov failure, Vegas ended up losing in the first round of the playoffs, and the conditional third-round pick failed to turn into a second. The Flames ended up taking goaltender Karill Zarubin with the pick, who is a promising young goaltender but is still a few years away from NHL action if he makes it.

The only saving grace of this deal is the 2026 unprotected first-round pick. Given there’s no protection at all, this pick could end up being Gavin McKenna. Unfortunately, the odds of that are nearly zero. It’d be a shock if this pick were even in the top 20 of next year’s draft. Vegas is still a powerhouse in the league and just picked up a 100-point player in Mitch Marner. Odds are they once again finish top 10 in the NHL, and the Flames are left with a late first-round pick as the main return for Hanifin. A disaster on every level.

Grade: D-

Traded a 2024 5th-round pick (Colton Roberts) to San Jose for Nikita Okhotyuk

The Flames already had a crowded group on defence in 2023–24, so trading a draft pick in the middle of a rebuilding season for a 23-year-old depth defender with 58 games of NHL experience is a puzzling decision. My assumption is the team wanted to take a gamble on a youngish defender in Nikita Okhotyuk to see if he could be a potential fit for the 2024–25 season, but to give up a fifth-round pick for a guy who struggled to earn a role on an NHL-worst San Jose Sharks blue line makes little to no sense.

Unsurprisingly, Okhotyuk managed just nine games in Calgary to close out the season and ended up signing in Russia once the season ended. Spending a fifth-round pick for nine games from a depth defenceman in a year in which you finished ninth last in the NHL is pretty poor asset management, even if it is only a fifth-round pick.

Grade: D

Traded Jacob Markstrom to New Jersey for Kevin Bahl and a 2025 1st-round pick (Cole Reschny)

After months of speculation, Conroy finally pulled the trigger and traded Jacob Markstrom to the Devils. When the trade first went down, there was quite a bit of backlash. The Devils were slated to pick 10th in the 2024 draft, with most fans hoping that pick was the centrepiece of any Markstrom deal. Instead, the Flames landed a top 10 protected pick in 2025 and third-pairing defenceman Kevin Bahl. With the Devils viewed as cup contenders with Markstrom, the first-round pick seemed destined to land in the late 20s of the 2025 draft. Things can change quickly, though.

Despite a strong start to the 2024–25 season, the Devils suffered multiple major injuries to key players and ended up finishing the season with fewer points than the Flames. After it was all said and done, the pick landed at 18th overall, a huge get for the Flames. With the pick, Calgary selected centre Cole Reschny, who has very real second-line upside and is currently the team’s top forward prospect. On top of that, Kevin Bahl came into his own in Calgary and looked like a legitimate second-pairing defender last year.

This deal is the perfect example of why judging a trade too early can come back to bite you. When it first went down, the return for one of the league’s premier starters seemed low. A year later, though, the Flames ended up picking up a potential future second-line centre and a 25-year-old second-pairing defender for Markstrom. You can’t hope for much better in return for a 34-year-old goaltender.

Grade: A

Traded Andrew Mangiapane to Washington for a 2025 2nd-round pick (Theo Stockselius)

Even last summer, when he was traded, Andrew Mangiapane’s 35-goal 2021–22 season felt like a lifetime ago. With the Flames experiencing a logjam on the wing and Mangiapane entering the final year of a contract he reportedly didn’t want to extend, Conroy shipped him out for a draft pick. It wasn’t a big move, but in terms of value in and value out, it remains one of the shrewder deals of Conroy’s tenure.

Mangiapane was never the same in Calgary after major shoulder surgery in 2023, and getting a second-round pick for a middle-six winger making nearly $6M a year will almost always be a great move. The fact that Mangiapane took yet another step back in Washington this past season, with only 28 points, makes the move look ever better a year later. Add on that he left the Capitals in free agency after just one disappointing season, and this could be a sneaky fleece by Conroy, especially if Theo Stockselius can become an NHL player one day.

Grade: A

Traded Jakob Pelletier, Andrei Kuzmenko, a 2025 2nd round pick (Shane Vansaghi), and a 2028 seventh-round pick to Philadelphia for Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee

With his team fighting for their playoff lives, Conroy pulled off a pretty major move in late January in an effort to boost the Flames’ forward group. On paper, this is a clear win for Calgary. Jakob Pelletier cleared waivers just a few months before this deal, and Kuzmenko struggled so much in Calgary that the team was reportedly considering waiving him as well before the deal happened. The only true value they gave up was a second-round pick, while getting back two young middle-six forwards. In a vacuum, that’s a win.

With that said, with further context included, this deal becomes a little tougher to grade. Given where the Flames are as a team, trading second-round picks probably shouldn’t be a thing. This team desperately needs more young talent, and a second-round pick is a valuable asset. Sure, Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee are decent NHLers, but they aren’t needle-movers. If anything, they just push Calgary closer to the mushy middle. When you consider Kuzmenko was later flipped by the Philadelphia Flyers for a third-round pick two months later, the trade looks even more questionable. At the very least, Pelletier was not qualified by the Flyers and left for nothing.

In essence, the Flyers received a second and third-round pick, and the Flames got Frost and Farabee. For a retooling team like Calgary, I’d argue those picks are more valuable. Add on that both players really struggled in Calgary after the deal, and there are early warning signs that this trade might be a miss. If even one of Frost or Farabee can bounce back next season and look like a contributor in the middle-six, this deal will look a whole lot better. If both can get back to their best, it will become a huge success. For now, though, I don’t love this trade for the Flames simply because it further establishes their place in the mushy middle.

Grade: B-