Why doesn’t Craig Conroy have a contract extension?

One of the more under the radar storylines to come from this season is the future of Craig Conroy. The Calgary Flames general manager is in the final year of his three year contract he signed in May of 2023. Why hasn’t he signed an extension? His head coach Ryan Huska just signed a two year contract extension prior to the start of the 2025-26 campaign.

Wouldn’t it make sense to sign Conroy first, and then his head coach?

That leads us to the questions, should the Flames sign Conroy to a multi year extension? And why hasn’t he been signed yet?

My answer to the first question is yes, the Flames should give Conroy a contract extension.

Conroy walked into one of the most dysfunctional situations in modern NHL history, thanks in large part to years of mismanagement by Brad Treliving and the divisive off-ice moves made by Darryl Sutter in the 2022-23 season which led to the collapse of the team culture.

Treliving left behind an aging roster, seven key pending UFAs, a group of veteran players who said they didn’t want to be in Calgary anymore, large contracts for older players, and a bottom ten prospect system in the NHL.

For the most part, Conroy has done a nice job dealing with that mess. He was able to turn his pending UFAs into an impressive collection of draft picks, prospects, and young NHLers. He was a major player in turning Calgary into a place where players wanted to stay long term. And he’s rebuilt his prospect system from one of the worst, to one of the best in the NHL.

It takes time to implement a plan into action and Conroy is still in the beginning stages of doing just that. If he can add an elite prospect or two to an already deep group, then he will truly be on his way to turning this ship around in a positive direction.

To me and I would assume the overwhelming majority of the fan base, Conroy should already have a contract extension in place.

So why isn’t he signed? Why has Murray Edwards, Robert Hayes and Don Maloney not put pen to paper with their GM?

One explanation could be that Edwards wants to see how this season goes and review Conroy’s plan before re-signing him in the offseason. For example, Brad Treliving signed his second contract with the Flames in May 2017, just two months before his first deal was to expire. Could Conroy be in for the same treatment? He might be. But what if there is another reason for not being signed?

One thing I wonder about is what does ownership and Maloney think of the job Conroy has done so far? What was Edwards’ mandate for Conroy when he took over as GM almost three years ago?

If the mandate from ownership was to rebuild this team and turn it into a contender within a 5-6 year period, then you would think Conroy would have signed a contract extension by now. He still needs time to execute on his vision. You can’t just give up on him after only three years if you have a long term mandate.

But what if the mandate was to do a very quick re-tool on the fly while keeping this team competitive every single year that Conroy is in charge.

If that is the case, I can see why Edwards might want to wait and see how this season goes. If Edwards truly wants this team to be in the mix for the playoffs over the next 2-3 years, being in 32nd place is an unacceptable result from his perspective 20 games into this season. And let’s be honest, this Flames team as currently constructed is in for at least two or three years of being in the mix for the draft lottery, not the postseason.

Based off reports from local and national media, the Flames ownership group has no interest in bottoming out. They always want to be in the mix and ice a “competitive” roster.

With that in mind, are there concerns from the very top of the organization  about the job Conroy is doing?

The Flames are dead last in the NHL standings. They’re last in goals scored. They’re last in power play percentage. They don’t have an elite prospect or player to build their next core around outside of Dustin Wolf. And this current veteran core hasn’t made the playoffs since being put together in 2022, and they’re start to get into the downside of their careers based off their age.

Things are trending in the wrong direction if you want to make the playoffs in the next few years.

The majority of die hard Flames fans want this team to bottom out so they can acquire the elite talent to help turn them into a true contender one day.

But ownership doesn’t want that to happen.

Could ownership look at the job Conroy has done and say “He’s had 3 years to turn this team around and it’s led to us being in last place. That’s not good enough”? Or will ownership take a longer term outlook and see that this team is heading in the right direction?

We don’t know what the answer is right now. Ownership, Robert Hayes, and Don Maloney almost never speak to the media so it’s difficult to know where their heads are at when it comes to the work done by Conroy.

But the longer it takes to get Conroy signed, the more I wonder what the future will look like for the fan favourite player and executive.

My two cents

If I were in charge I would have signed Conroy to a new contract extension already. It doesn’t make sense to keep him unsigned for next season on a team that is about to embark on a rebuild. Commit to your GM now and show that you trust his long term plan.

It shows a lack of confidence in the GM if ownership and upper management don’t commit to him soon.