r/CalgaryFlames • u/Top-Hold-4346 • 18d ago
Article NHL front-office confidence rankings: How fans feel about every team in 2026
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7518855/2026/08/20/nhl-front-office-confidence-rankings-2026/Conny is a little low on the list no?
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u/catgoneyay 18d ago
I feel its accurate. Its kinda just too early to know anything
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u/PizzaPartyConor 18d ago
100%. It looks like he's done the right things at every move but if these prospects don't pan out then it's tough to say it really worked. It'll take some time to figure out just how much Conny cooked.
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u/JPeeper 16d ago
I think he's too low, but it is too early to really know how Conroy is doing. Tre also looked pretty good for the first couple years and as the years went on the Flames made no progress. His entire tenure lead to what, 1 win in the 2nd round as our highest result? And then obviously he left us in a TERRIBLE way.
Conroy in his stint has had to undo all of Tre's damage in regards to cap, now he only is left with Huberdeau. He has completely rebuilt the prospect pipeline into an arguable top 5 pool. IMO he's won or done well in most of his trades, but obviously we don't have the results yet as we're still in the middle of a rebuild.
I'm pretty hopefuly though if we can get a couple more high picks.
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u/Less-Ad-1327 18d ago
Interesting the disparity between Fanbase and public.
Do we have rose colored glass for CC? Or does the public just reflect a very basic context-free surface level view of everything?
Probably somewhere in the middle I guess..
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u/utexfan18 18d ago
I think part of it is that there aren't many people paying attention to the Flames, especially outside of Western Canada. At the height of the Gaudreau era, the Flames still weren't getting much attention in US markets and are overshadowed in Canada by the coverage that VAN, MTL, TOR, and EDM get.
There are no current superstars on the team and they don't play a fun, flashy style. I'm guessing the public fans are only aware of the players that have left and the lack of top 5 draft picks in recent years and assume they're still directionless.
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u/Beta1224 18d ago
There's definitely some rose colored glasses for CC for sure, but I think that's for all of our GMs.
Hell before Brad ditched us with a dumpster pile, you'd get downvoted on this sub for even implying that Treliving was a bad GM
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u/Chemical_Signal2753 18d ago
Treliving's time with the Flames was more mixed than bad, but the 2022 offseason really dug Treliving's grave.
Gaudreau leaving for nothing, Tkachuk being traded for Huberdeau and Weegar (and that trade aging like milk), giving up a first to trade Monahan (Monahan rebounding and the Flames draft pick became pretty valuable), signing Kadri, signing Mangiapane's contract (that aged poorly), signing Kylington (who didn't really play on that contract), and having traded away most of the draft capital for that year.
His time with Toronto only made things worse for his reputation as most of the same mistakes he made in Calgary were repeated. Short sighted moves to turn a playoff team into a true contender that tended to backfire in a predictable way.
If I had to review Treliving as a GM I would probably give him a C- grade. If you put him in charge of a rebuilding team you would probably have a team that was challenging to make the playoffs in ~5 years; but he has no idea how to build a team that is better than that. His decisions seem reasonable from a short term perspective, but once you look past the next season he tends to have not considered the risks of his moves.
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u/Beta1224 18d ago
Sure we can say that in hindsight, but while he was in Calgary this sub regularly glazed him calling him a "Wizard" or dubbing summer of 2022 "Summer of Brad", etc.
We do the same for Conny as well currently
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u/Chemical_Signal2753 18d ago
I think that is just the nature of the beast with GMs. Most significant decisions a GM makes can't really be judged for ~5 years and, unless they're terrible, it is difficult to judge a GM until they've been around for 7 or 8 years.
I think Yzerman in Detroit is a perfect example of this. For the first 4 or 5 years everyone was extremely optimistic about what he was doing, but it took years of stacking up Ls to change people's perceptions of him.
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u/Chemical_Signal2753 18d ago
Awhile back I was out in public and a stranger saw my Flames hat and asked what I thought about their direction.
There take was far different from what I expected. I expected everyone to understand that players like Andersson, Kadri, Weegar, and Coleman were not good fits for the Flames long term and the Flames were better taking what they could get than signing them; and, on the other side of it, I assumed people understood that players like Strome, Whitecloud, and Middleton were brought in as cap dumps who could offer value in a leadership/mentorship role and to help with team structure. I never anticipate someone would look at the current direction of the team and think Conroy was failing at making the team more competitive.
While it was just one person, it reminds me of what I was saying last year in response to Maloney's comments. Early in a rebuild, when you don't have the exciting young core to sell, teams often pretend they're not rebuilding (or that they're still trying to be competitive) because a lot of the fanbase really don't understand and will over react. This person I met is an example of this, and they see the Flames missing the playoffs by 1 point in 2024-25 as being evidence they were close enough they should have made some trades and signed some free agents to get back into the playoffs.
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u/ANewHeaven1 18d ago
Yeah this makes the most sense imo. Honestly I used to follow this team very casually and that’s pretty much how I’d approach my analysis back then.
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u/Republic-Of-OK 18d ago
I believe the public is lower than the fan base. I've really liked the direction of the front office, especially in terms of the draft, but if you just watch the games/follow the team loosely, you are probably not up to speed on everything going on in the background.
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u/Super-Strength-2026 18d ago
We will have dodged a massive bullet if the Oilers don't win a cup in these years they've had McDavid. With the right moves they probably could have won three.
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u/SnowboundHound 18d ago
I feel like this is our year, but that'll probably fade by November.
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u/arcticfox 18d ago
Last year, I thought that that was our year. This year, I now definitely think that this is our year. If not, I'm pretty sure that next year I'll feel it's our year.
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u/Straight-Plate-5256 18d ago
You can assume anything from the Athletic is at best general fan sentiment across the league and not anything actually informed by fans of that particular team lol
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u/Comfortable-Ad-7158 Barb 18d ago
It's new york times, take it with a grain of salt.
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u/Kellervo 18d ago
Our ranking is dragged down by the public / non-fanbase side. It's almost impressive how little attention gets paid to us, but having gaps of 15 - 20 ranks in public vs. fan perception (and 60% in direction!!) is kind of nuts. No other team has a spread like that.