Flames president reticent to trade Kadri amid ‘retooling’ process

CALGARY — With the Calgary Flames’ playoff hopes all but extinguished, speculation has naturally turned to which veterans might be flipped to accelerate a rebuild.

However, president of hockey operations Don Maloney pushed back on the idea that the man on top of most lists, Nazem Kadri, should be among them.

“I think we need more Kadris, not less,” said Maloney of the 35-year-old centre he deems crucial to the culture and leadership of his team.

“We need more of that winning.”

Interpret that as you will.

In a wide-ranging sit-down on Friday, Maloney cut against the grain of fan consensus in many areas, insisting the team won’t throw in the towel on its playoff dreams, that he has no plan to embrace the notion of drafting top three, and that there is no appetite to even use the word rebuild.

His candid assessment of the situation continues in Part 2 of his Q and A, as he pinpoints the word he prefers to use, gives a vote of confidence to his coach, refuses to address the future of his GM and delves into the futures of Zayne Parekh, Matvei Gridin and Rasmus Andersson.     

Sportsnet: How would you assess the job Craig Conroy has done?

Don Maloney: I think Craig has been excellent at creating an environment, a culture here of being proud to play in Calgary. I think his biggest strength is his relationship with the players, which is excellent. He cares, and they know he cares. I think the first year was very difficult with the number of good players we had at the end of their contracts. A couple of those guys would probably help us right about now, but we got through that. I think Year 2 was very strong. But again, you want to keep the pressure on each other and why we say we want to be a playoff team. We don’t want to go into the season saying, ‘We want to draft in the top five.’ I don’t want to, in any way, shape or form, be associated with that, because then, why are we doing this? Just to fantasize we’re going to get a star player?

SN: Conroy is in the final year of his contract. Why hasn’t he been extended?

DM: We keep that internal. We’re not discussing that. We have a certain process we go through here. 

SN: The team is in a critical stage of shaping the future, so isn’t it important to have the architect in charge of shaping the blueprint in place long-term? 

DM: Again, we’re not going to talk contract. I’m not going to comment on his status, but Craig has done a good job here for us. And as we go through every day, everything’s an evaluation, as we all know. I think he’s done a good job making this Flames organization an attractive place. When people get out here, they say, ‘Wow, this is a good place to play.’ And when the new building comes, that’s going to be a help for us to not only attract, but keep, our players. So, we’ll see how this plays out.

SN: How would you assess the job Ryan Huska has done as coach?

DM: I think Ryan’s an excellent coach. I think this has been a very difficult time for him and his staff as well. I think he’s got a good feel for how we have to play. But at the end of the day, we are where we are on the standings. Ultimately, the coach controls that as well. There’s areas of our game that we know we have to improve, and make some changes, like our power play. Ultimately, that is a coach. We have no intention of thinking there is a need to rejig our coaching staff at all. Ryan is a good coach for this team and needs to continue to work to get more out of what we have here.

SN: What is the general plan for Matvei Gridin? 

DM: He is in a great spot (with the AHL’s Wranglers) and he is a talent. Yeah, he can go down there, turn pucks over, and nobody’s paying attention to him. He’s one of the leading rookie scorers down there. He’s still producing. If you bring him up, he has to play in the top nine. Grid is going to be a terrific player for us down the road, but not that might not be until February or March, depending on how he goes and where the team’s at. We have to be more patient. Maybe some people like the idea of throwing all these young players into the league, but then you run into confidence issues. These young guys are used to scoring at every level, then all of a sudden they haven’t touched the puck in two weeks, and they lose their game and their belief. The Celebrinis are the exceptions. Look at even (Connor) Bedard a year ago…and now he’s back to the level he should be.

SN: Can I assume you’d point to Zayne Parekh’s season as a good example of why you don’t want to rush younger players into the league too early?

DM: Zayne is a perfect example. We got a glimpse of him last April, when he came in at the end of the year, and in Game 82 he was terrific. He was dynamic, his skating, his flow, his passing, his getting up ice. It was one game, so I’m guilty of it too. In my mind, I said at the very least he’ll help our power play. But fast forward three or four months later, he has some health issues training, comes into camp and has been playing catch up. And then he loses his confidence, and now he’s just trying to keep his head above water. He’s just not anywhere near the player that we think he will be. Not everybody’s a star overnight. Physically, mentally and emotionally, when he hit this sort of wall he was trying to just figure out, ‘How do I survive in this league, let alone prosper?’ In an impatient world, everybody wants people here now and (to) get them in the lineup and let them fail and grow. We don’t think that’s the right route. We think we need to put them in places to succeed.

SN: Has anything changed on the Rasmus Andersson front?

DM: That falls under Craig’s area, but we’re constantly talking about it. He loves Calgary, his family loves Calgary. He hates to lose. We want more players here that hate to lose, and you can feel it when you see his interviews. The last thing we want is him walking out the door, but he has certain rights. We have rights. The idea was, ‘Let’s get into the season, let’s see how things go. We’ll revisit this at some point.’ And that’s where we sit. We have not closed the door at all. I don’t think he has, but there is a time element here that at some point that decision will have to be made. We’d love, personally, to find a way to get him signed here long term, but we’ll see whether that can happen.

SN: Have you been as impressed as I have at how well he’s handled the situation, knowing he’ll almost certainly be traded?

DM: I really do admire how, from Day 1, it has not bothered him. He’s here just to help us win, and that’s been his focus. I do admire it. He’s probably been our best defenceman, or certainly over the last three weeks he’s playing great hockey right now, which is great for him, great for us. Since the 4 Nations and the world championships there’s been growth in him. At some point, if we can’t find something that works for him, and us, then we’ll have to look at alternatives. We know that, but we’re not racing out to do anything, unless it’s something that says, ‘OK, this is something — someone wants to step up.’ And it’s not draft picks, because with anybody who wants Rasmus, in all reality, their draft pick would be in the 20s to 32nd. It’d be different if you said yeah, you’re guaranteed a top-three or top-five pick. 

SN: In your intermission interview with Brendan Parker Wednesday night, you used the word “rebuild,” and then quickly changed it to “retool.” What word would you use to describe what you guys are doing right now?

DM: I think a retooling is more accurate, but that was started two years ago when we traded all those really good NHL players. There’s a new mindset going forward. You think of the last few years when Tre (Brad Treliving) and Darryl (Sutter) were here, we were going for it. We gave up picks and we acquired players, and unfortunately we didn’t have the playoff success that you would like. We’re in a different phase now, but we still think we can be a competitive team. We can fight for playoff spots as we grow the franchise.

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