“I think the biggest part of being a general manager is asset management.” Those are the words spoken by Calgary Flames general manager Craig Conroy on the day he was promoted to the GM’s chair in 2023. He went out of his way in his introductory press conference to talk about how much he learned from the Johnny Gaudreau situation and vowed to do a better job managing his assets.

And so far in his tenure he has done just that. He was able to acquire assets in exchange for the likes of Elias Lindholm, Tyler Toffoli, Andrew Mangiapane, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, Nikita Zadorov, and Jacob Markstrom.

But it wasn’t necessarily Conroy’s choice to move out some of those players.

Elias Lindholm turned down a massive contract offer from the Flames rumoured to be in the 8 year, $8 million AAV range. He forced the Flames to trade him.

Noah Hanifin rejected multiple long term contract offers to stay in Calgary. He forced the Flames to trade him.

It took Nikita Zadorov having to make a public trade request to move him.

Jacob Markstrom had to request a trade to get out of Calgary.

There is a trend in the Calgary Flames organization of having to be forced by players to move them out via trade, despite the fact that the team should have been proactive in already making those decisions on their own.

Don Maloney said it himself in his interview last week with Brendan Parker. “People think we make decisions. But players often make the decision for us.” We can see that’s been the case in the past, and it’s also what we are seeing now in the present.

Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 has reported on multiple occasions that it’s going to take Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman to go to management to ask for a trade. Not the Flames being proactive and making those deals on their own.

How sad is it that Flames fans who want a rebuild and a better future now have to actively cheer for players on their favourite team to have to ask for a trade rather than having management do it proactively on their own volition?

You can’t let the players run the organization in professional sports. The teams are the ones that need to be proactive when it comes to their long term plan. They have to be willing to make difficult decisions in order to put themselves in the best situation to succeed. And with where the Flames are right now, they need to trade veterans and accumulate assets for the future if they want to become a contender one day.

A great example of making difficult decisions is the Chicago Blackhawks. They moved off of Patrick Kane, Kirby Dach, Brandon Hagel, Alex DeBrincat, Seth Jones, Marc-Andre Fleury all in the name of a rebuild. Because of that they were able to bottom out and win the draft lottery to select Connor Bedard. They acquired assets in those trades that turned into Spencer Knight, Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, Mason West, Ryan Greene, Kevin Korchinski to name a few. The Blackhawks have one of the brightest outlooks in the NHL. They made the difficult decision to move out good players and popular teammates to build for a better future.

The Flames should take a page out of the Blackhawks playbook.

Re-signing the likes of Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin were not going to get the Flames a better future. Holding on to Rasmus Andersson, Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman until the very last minute doesn’t make sense for a rebuilding team.

The goal this season should be to bottom out as quickly as possible and give yourself the best chance to pick in the top 3 of the 2026 NHL draft. And by holding on to guys like Kadri and Coleman, it’s only going to take yourself out of the bottom of the standings.

The Flames are going to miss the playoffs this season. Wouldn’t it be better for their future to pick in the top 3 of a loaded draft class instead of 8th-to-12th like Don Maloney wants?

Flames fans deserve better from this franchise who has made it past game five of the second round one time in the last 35 years. The team that has won five playoff series in the last 35 years. The team that has won the sixth-fewest playoff games in the salary cap era.

There has been zero playoff success in the lifetime of many young Flames fans.

What they’re doing isn’t working, and hasn’t worked for a long time. It’s time to try something different. And it all starts with committing to a rebuild and truly prioritizing asset management.

But unfortunately, it’s going to have to be the players who save the Flames from themselves once again.

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