The Calgary Flames promoted from within and have given former player Craig Conroy his first job as an NHL general manager.
The Flames announced the 51-year-old from Potsdam, N.Y., as the team’s next GM in a news release Tuesday.
Conroy was an assistant GM of the Flames for nine seasons.
He apprenticed under Brad Treliving, who departed the Flames in April after nine years.
Hockey operations president Don Maloney served as interim GM until Conroy’s promotion.
“Thank you to the Flames ownership group for the confidence and trust they have demonstrated by providing me with this opportunity,” Conroy said in a statement. “Over the course of the past 12 years, I’ve put in the time in every aspect of our hockey operations to prepare myself for today.
“I’m ready to accept this challenge and promise our fans that our team will do the work required to make them proud on the journey to deliver a championship.”
The Flames also announced that former Toronto Maple Leafs GM Dave Nonis has joined the team as senior vice-president of hockey operations and assistant GM.
Conroy played just over 1,000 NHL regular-season games, half of them with the Flames.
Shortly after retiring, he joined Calgary’s front office in 2011 as a special assistant to then-GM Jay Feaster.
Naming a new head coach will be Conroy’s first order of business to steady a team that’s had its share of organizational drama recently.
‘Relationship driven’
Darryl Sutter was fired May 1 less than two weeks after the Flames announced Treliving had left.
“Craig brings a fresh approach; high energy; he is a tremendous communicator; decisive; a worker; and he is relationship driven,” Maloney said. “His passion for the Flames and the community are unmatched.
“Craig is ready for the challenge to lead our team to the Stanley Cup.”
Conroy’s hire will be Calgary’s fifth coaching change in eight years.
Treliving turned down a contract extension from the Flames last year.
He’d pulled off a pair of blockbuster moves in signing free agent Nazem Kadri and getting winger Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in a trade with the Florida Panthers.
Treliving made those moves because star winger Johhny Gaudreau chose to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Matthew Tkachuk, who was a restricted free agent at the time, indicated he wanted out of Calgary.
Neither Kadri nor Huberdeau, with a combined 15 years and US$133 million in contracts between them, meshed well with Sutter, and their production was well below their career highs.
The 38-27-17 Flames finished fifth in the Pacific Division this season, missing the playoffs by two points after reaching the second round a year ago.
Conroy will soon turn his attention to the NHL draft June 28-29 in Nashville, where the Flames have the 16th pick in the first round.
Meanwhile, five Flames are headed for unrestricted free agency this summer: forwards Nick Ritchie, Milan Lucic and Trevor Lewis and defencemen Michael Stone and Troy Stecher.
Forwards Mikael Backlund, Elias Lindholm, Tyler Toffoli and Dillon Dube each have a year remaining on their contracts, as do defencemen Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov.
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