Calgary Flames GM Craig Conroy Got Value For All His Free Agents
TSN Director of Scouting joined Jay Onrait on SportsCenter and stated that Flames general manager Craig Conroy got value for his players based on what the market dictated.
** NHLRumors.com Transcription
NHL Trade: Calgary Flames Trade Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights
Jay Onrait: “Criag.This is Craig Conroy retool. Third significant trade of the year. What do you think the return the Flames got? I’d say it’s the fourth significant trade if you count too Toffoli.”
Craig Button: “Well, I think that’s significant. I don’t think there’s any question. The Calgary Flames were very clear about what they were going to do with their unrestricted restricted free agents or pending unrestricted free agents. They were going to work to try and re-sign them, or they were going to move them for prospects in draft picks. So obviously, we see that they weren’t able to sign them, so they get exactly what they set out to do.
NHL Rumors: Jake Guentzel Trade Seems Inevitable
You know, you look at the market for Noah Hanifin. It’s a first-round draft pick. There are conditions attached to it. A third that could go to a second. That’s the marketplace for an unrestricted defenseman going elsewhere. So I think Craig Conway was able to canvass the marketplace and understand okay, this is my best return, but we put the whole body of work and that goes back to Toffoli, goes to Zadorov, goes to Lindholm, goes to Tanev, it goes now to Hanifin.
You know, they got some younger players back, some defenders and Grushnikov and Brzustewicz, which, you know, two different types. They got Jurmo in that deal. They got two first-round draft picks. They got the second-round pick.
So the whole idea about how they were going to retool and trying to get a return on these players if they couldn’t sign them, I think has worked out really, really well for Craig Conroy and one of the things that I think it’s important to say, Jay, is that a lot of people go oh, they didn’t get enough.
NHL Rumors: Flames GM Craig Conroy Continues To Get Value for His Players
Right. Well, really, you don’t think that Craig Conroy canvass the league and tried to understand what the marketplace was, so you’re gonna judge that he didn’t get enough? Like it’s ludicrous that people can even make that type of commentary. Bottom line is Craig Conroy in his group, just like every manager and leader canvassing, they understand what’s there.
So you might think, because in your own mind, oh, we should have got this for this player. No, he got what the value of what I call commensurate value. He got commensurate value for Tanev. He got commensurate value for Toffoli. He got commensurate value for Lindholm. He got commensurate value for Hanifin, that’s the job and it did—a very good job of it.”
Here is who he moved out and what he got in return:
Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff: Monster job by #Flames Craig Conroy in some really difficult circumstances.
OUT: Toffoli, Zadorov, Lindholm, Tanev, Hanifin.
IN: Two 1sts, 2nd, four 3rds, 4th, 5th, Sharangovich, Kuzmenko, Grushnikov, Jurmo, Miromanov, Brzustewicz.
(One 3rd can -> 2nd; one 4th can -> 3rd)