Way, way back in the early 1970s, the National Hockey League awarded the city of Atlanta, Georgia a franchise, in part to balance out the league’s schedule after they awarded a franchise to Long Island, New York in an effort to keep the upstart World Hockey Association out of the newly-built Nassau Coliseum. Adding a team in Atlanta also got them into a major American media market and kept the WHA out of the then-new Omni Coliseum, as well.

Shortly after taking ownership, Atlanta’s owner, Tom Cousins, hired St. Louis Blues assistant general manager Cliff Fletcher to run the newly-minted Flames as general manager. Fletcher took the helm in January 1972 and with a bare-bones scouting staff working out of a trailer (as the arena was still being built), had to prepare for both an expansion draft and an amateur draft a few months later. From there, the Flames franchise was off and running. And “Trader Cliff,” as he was affectionately nicknamed by his managerial counterparts, spent the better part of two decades with the Flames organization tweaking and tinkering with his roster with an aim towards hockey’s ultimate prize. Even a relocation to Calgary, Alberta in 1980 couldn’t stop his progress. Between 1976 and 1991, the Flames never missed the playoffs – and they only missed the post-season twice in 19 seasons under Fletcher.

On May 25, 1989, Fletcher’s Flames won the franchise’s one and only Stanley Cup.

On Friday afternoon, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Fletcher has passed away at the age of 90.

Fletcher departed the Flames in May 1991, joining the Toronto Maple Leafs as their president and general manager, positions he served in until the end of the 1997-98 campaign. He subsequently as a senior advisor with the Tampa Bay Lightning (1998-2000) and in various executive roles with the Phoenix Coyotes (2000-07), including a brief spell as interim general manager, before returning to the Maple Leafs in 2008. After a brief spell as general manager (2008-10), Fletcher stepped into an advisory role, which he held until his passing. Fletcher got his start in hockey as a scout with the Montreal Canadiens in 1956, so he spent essentially his entire adult life in hockey.

It’s hard to understate how fundamental Fletcher was to the Flames’ success in the 1980s. He used the club’s tenure in Atlanta as a test-bed for ideas on how to make the hockey club better. Many of the things that have become commonplace these days, particularly scouting in Europe and college hockey, were areas where the Flames were early adopters under Fletcher and helped the club become one of the strongest drafting teams in the 1980s. He also recruited hot-shot college coach “Badger” Bob Johnson from the University of Wisconsin to modernize the team in the early 1980s, a move which led to the team’s first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1986.

Moreover, Fletcher was never satisfied with the team’s successes and kept trying to improve them, often moving players before the bloom had come off the proverbial rose. Case in point: he traded Kent Nilsson to the Minnesota North Stars in 1985 for a pair of draft picks when it became apparent to him that Nilsson’s defensive flaws were holding the team back. The two picks became Stephane Matteau and Joe Nieuwendyk, with the latter being a key piece in the club’s Stanley Cup win.

Fletcher was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2004.

Not every move Fletcher made was a winner, and we could litigate a lot of his moves in retrospect. But there’s one thing that’s for sure: the Flames would not have gotten to where they did in their first two decades without Fletcher’s wisdom, tenacity and vision.

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