Friedman: Flames heading into ‘Phase 2’ of their general manager search
By Ryan Pike
11 months agoAs usual, Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman had some Calgary Flames general manager updates in Monday’s edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast over at Sportsnet. Friedman shared that the Flames appear to be entering the next phase, “Phase 2,” of their search for a new GM.
Here’s Friedman:
“Believe the Flames are headed into phase two of Operation: GM, which is narrowing down the list and bringing some people in for interviews. I think some of the people they’ve talked to: I’ve heard Marc Bergevin’s name. I’ve mentioned Mark Hunter before, that I thought he was going to at least be on their list. Another person I wondered about is Ray Whitney, he has a history with Don Maloney and I’ve kind of wondered about that.But one thing that a couple people warned me was… I shouldn’t say warned, but they said made me aware of, is don’t discount the internal candidates. One of them obviously is Craig Conroy. I’ve also wondered about the possibility of Brad Pascall. Just someone said to me don’t discount that possibility. Don’t guarantee it either. I don’t think the Flames have decided. But don’t discount the possibility. So that’s kind of where we are with the Flames.”
For the curious:
- Bergevin has spent the past season and change with Los Angles as a senior advisor. Previously he was the GM of the Montreal Canadiens (2012-22) and served in several roles with Chicago, including as assistant GM, between 2005 and 2012.
- Hunter is the GM of the Ontario League’s London Knights, a title he’s held for a long, long time. He also spent four seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs as director of player personnel (and later assistant GM).
- Whitney played 1,330 NHL games, including two seasons in Phoenix (where Maloney was his GM). Since retiring from playing hockey in 2014, he’s worked as a scout for Carolina for a few seasons and coached high-end bantam hockey in the Phoenix area. He’s worked with the NHL’s department of player safety since 2017. He was one of the contenders for the San Jose GM job that ultimately went to Mike Grier.
And we’ve written – a lot – about the candidacies of Conroy and Pascall, two of the Flames’ three current assistant GMs.
As noted, Maloney has indicated a preference towards having a GM in place by their pre-draft scouting meetings, which are coming up in a week or so. We’ll have more on their search as it unfolds.
Recent articles from Ryan Pike
