Notes From Brad Treliving’s Press Conference
By Ryan Pike
8 years agoAfter a busy July 1 that saw his club sign Michael Frolik, Karri Ramo and Derek Grant, and acquire a conditional pick for Max Reinhart, Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving addressed the assembled media at the Scotiabank Saddledome earlier this afternoon.
In case you missed it, here’s what he had to say.
Treliving shared that he wanted to address defense and right-wing, organizationally and they added Dougie Hamilton at the draft and Michael Frolik through free agency. Goaltending had been a topic of conversation, and they had looked at different options: he felt that retaining Karri Ramo strengthens and stabilizes the position. He said adding Derek Grant gives them depth in the organization. They traded Reinhart to Nashville to give him an opportunity elsewhere. He wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the conditions on the pick, but noted it was a fourth rounder (if the conditions were met).
On what Michael Frolik brings to the table:
He’s like a Swiss army knife, that’s probably the best way to describe him. He’s able to bounce all over your line-up. He plays in the guts of the game. Strong penalty killer, plays with a lot of pace. We’ve watched him closely obviously this year and over the last few years. He’s sort of one of those unheralded guys who does a lot of heavy lifting and doesn’t necessarily seem to get the accolades, but I look at him as a guy that really is an important guy to help you win.
On Frolik’s size and his ability to play “big”:
Playing big doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be six-six. You can play a heavy game, a strong game. And today’s game is so much about small space, compete areas, and I think he’s excellent in those types of situations.
The Flames didn’t cast a bit net in terms of looking at free agents. Trevliving said they focused in on Frolik specifically.
On the off-season additions addressing the team’s puck possession:
We want to hold onto the puck more, we want to create more offense. Not only to create offense, but the more you have it the less you have to defend. The less bad things happen when you have the puck. So yeah, they fit on a number of levels, and that was obviously one area we wanted to see if we could upgrade.
On the team’s depth after the past week of moves:
We don’t play a game for a long time. There’s still tweaking to do. I’m really happy with the group we’ve got right now. It opens up some different opportunities, some different possibilities. More so, it opens up some competition for jobs. If you feel you’ve got to add or you want to add a Michael Frolik, you look at what does that create roster-wise and again, that may facilitate us doing something down the road. You have to spell all those things out before you get into the acquisiton phase and say, okay what does this look like. I like that we’ve got a lot of good players. I think we’ve got a good blend of different things. We’ve filled some needs. By no means are we “there,” but it’s a good competitive group and will make for a good competitive training camp.
On changing expectations after the season and the past week of moves:
We told our team this on locker clean-out day, I talked about we all have to be better. It starts with me. What we accomplished last year was nice, but ultimately it’s just a step. The fact that we had the season we had is going to raise expectations. That’s just human nature. We can’t shy away from those. If we all want to be good, this is what happens when you want to be good: there’s more expected, there’s more pressure, there’s all those types of things, and we’ve got to start living like a team that wants to be good.
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