Ryan Huska and Craig Conroy’s first season in their respective roles as Calgary Flames head coach and general manager is over. It means we must grade them as we did with the Flames forwards, defence and goaltending. Their grades are similar, largely in part because of how they handled one crucial part of the Flames’ retooling efforts.
For readers who want to express their opinions on Huska and Conroy so far, let your feelings be known in our survey.
Head coach & general manager
Ryan Huska
At the beginning of the season, the expectation was that Huska’s approach — distinctly more warm and inviting than his predecessor Darryl Sutter — would help improve the Flames’ atmosphere. Perhaps that change could help consider some Flames players with expiring contracts to stay. The air around the team was different entering the season, and Huska deserves some credit for that. A handful of players praised Huska last week when asked how they felt about his first year on the job. Yes, having fun in a season where you missed the playoffs and registering the same number of wins as you did last year seems funny on the surface. But it was clear that Huska being behind the bench was a positive compared to the previous regime.
What would have happened had their season-opening start not been as poor as it was? A 2-7-1 start put the Flames behind the 8-ball early. It’s no coincidence that contract talks stalled between Noah Hanifin and the Flames during that stretch. Meanwhile, Huska spent the first few games figuring out the line combinations he wanted. But it didn’t help that his team looked slow and struggled with a new defensive system he wanted in place. Oh, and the power play didn’t help in that regard either.
What worked for Huska was the infusion of young talent, notably the inclusion of players like Martin Pospisil and Connor Zary. Huska trusted both players alongside Nazem Kadri, who needed faster players around him to get himself out of an early-season slump. That line will go down as one of the best the Flames deployed all season. Zary was even given power-play minutes, hoping to revitalize the team on the man advantage, and was used as a centre by the end of the campaign. However, it remains to be seen if that position will be a long-term fit for him.
Matthew Coronato might have needed some more seasoning at the beginning of the season, but Huska tried to give him more opportunity again when he was called up near the end of the season. He genuinely looked better and more confident as the season wound down. Finally, once Dustin Wolf was given the runway to play more games with the Flames in the final quarter of the year, Huska gave him his chances as well. Jakob Pelletier, Connor Schwindt, Adam Klapka, Yan Kuznetsov and Ilya Solovyov saw varying degrees of limited time, each for different reasons, but Huska used them whenever he could.
As the Flames are trying to make their franchise more inviting to younger players in the name of playing time, Huska’s work with young players plays an instrumental role in changing that reputation. Huska’s ability to plug them into the lineup gets major points from us.
While some players like Kadri, Blake Coleman and MacKenzie Weegar had massive seasons under him, it’s still a work in progress for their $10.5 million player in Jonathan Huberdeau. The second half of his season saw him play some of the best hockey we’ve seen from him since he joined the team. But he still ended the season with fewer points than he did last year and still doesn’t have a permanent centre attached to him. Huberdeau needs to bear responsibility for his play, but the Flames have to take some blame for their role in not getting more out of him as well. Huska and the Flames also have to have points docked off for their inability to close out lowly teams like Chicago and San Jose regularly.
Of course, Huska still trying to make something of his roster as key pieces were being dealt away must also be considered. Truthfully, he’d get a much higher grade if he somehow navigated the team to a playoff berth. But Huska still got his team through an 82-game season with some positives.
It’s on him to build on that foundation for next season. Or, if the team truly isn’t competitive to make the playoffs, to get the most out of his young players and veterans again.
Grade: C+
Craig Conroy (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Craig Conroy
Once Conroy realized that many of the Flames’ pending unrestricted free agents weren’t likely to re-sign, he started making moves in the hopes of accumulating younger assets and draft picks. He kickstarted the team’s retooling and hasn’t been afraid of acknowledging that his team is in one.
The acquisition of Yegor Sharangovich last summer paid off dividends, resulting in a career-best 31-goal season and a young prospect in Aydar Suniev. The Elias Lindholm trade will also go down as a positive one for Conroy, landing a solid roster player in Andrei Kuzmenko who changed their power play, a young offensive defender in Hunter Brzustewicz, another young defenceman in Joni Jurmo and two draft picks; the most notable one being the Canucks’ 2024 first-round pick. Some criticized Conroy for dealing away Nikita Zadorov well before the deadline, but he also gained cap space flexibility and draft picks. We’ll never know exactly how much more, or less, he would’ve gotten for Zadorov. But it will go down as one of his better moves.
While Conroy is looked at more favourably in the trades we mentioned above, he didn’t come out as a clear winner in the Chris Tanev trade nor in the Noah Hanifin move. The Flames got a 2024 second-round pick for Tanev, but there’s a question mark around prospect Artem Grushnikov; it seems the Flames are in no rush to call him up to the big leagues anytime soon. Calgary, meanwhile, failed to get a first-round pick in 2024 or 2025 or a prospect in exchange for Hanifin. Also, Conroy didn’t get a bona fide, blue-chip prospect or a high-end player who could help the team for the long haul. Kuzmenko has an incredible amount of talent and he’s shown that in his Flames tenure. But it remains to be seen if Kuzmenko is a long-term fix and he isn’t as effective when he’s asked to be more defensively responsible.
Finally, we have to talk about Jacob Markstrom. It isn’t readily clear what the Flames would’ve gotten for Markstrom, or if they were that close to moving on. But Conroy now has a goaltender who is openly wondering aloud about his future despite having a no-movement clause, weeks after publicly airing out his grievances about being at the centre of trade speculation. The pressure is on for Conroy to mend that relationship and decide on his course of action afterward.
Conroy, just like Huska, gets points thanks to the inclusion of youth in their system. The GM called up a handful of young players throughout the season, including goalie Dustin Wolf whom he’s openly advocated for him to get playing time.
As for that retool, Conroy mentioned he’d like to see his team emulate the Dallas Stars model of adding draft picks around their veterans in the hopes of winning quickly. The Stars model is a good idea in theory, but it would require a lot of luck to pull off — or at least call on a ton of work from the team’s scouting staff. The challenge for him to build a roster that can compete while hoping that his young players take the next step and that his veterans maintain their form could be difficult if he doesn’t add quality pieces around them. And that might mean making some tough decisions this offseason.
But at the onset, Conroy has taken steps in the right direction for his team.
Grade: C+
(Top photo of Ryan Huska: Jonathan Kozub / NHLI via Getty Images)
