Don Maloney SETS OFF The Flames Fanbase… Pike & Robert Break It All Down 😬 | FN After Burner

Don Maloney SETS OFF The Flames Fanbase… Pike & Robert Break It All Down 😬 | FN After Burner

John Maloney, the president of hockey operations uh for the Calgary Flames uh is on the road trip and during the first intermission of the broadcast, he had a nice chat with sports Brennan Parker. We we know Parks very well. Parks is a really good really good broadcaster, really good interviewer. And I thought, you know, Parks asked the questions I think that everyone kind of wanted asked. And you know, but if we if we come across critical of here, I’ll just say straight away, Parks, we love you. you did. It was a good interview by by the person doing the interviewing. Robert, what did you think? What were your takeaways from the intermission interview that uh was on the Sportsnet broadcast? You know, like so this is the first time someone in hockey ops has talked to the fans through the first 21 games. So, and it’s it’s been rough. People are not happy both with the on ice product and and you know with NHL insiders reporters saying that the Flames aren’t willing to go into a full rebuild and they’re not willing to listen to trade offers on some of their top players right now. It’s very frustrating. So, you know, when I heard Don Maloney is going to the broadcast, the first thing I thought was, hey, this is a chance for the front office staff, the guy who’s leading the hockey operations department to to bring some confidence to the fan base that, hey, we understand the situation. We know what’s going on. Don’t worry, we got the situation handled when we have a plan in place. I felt like that did not happen. And I I believe we have some clips. Yes. You can tee them up. You can tee them up. Jack, play the first one. Let’s go. Uh how would you assess uh the first quarter of this season for your club? Well, it’s been terribly disappointing. Uh you know, we the way it works in the summertime, we review the prior season. We go to ownership with a a plan to move forward. When we looked at last season’s team, we had a good finish the last three months. We we thought we could come in and build on that. Unfortunately, hasn’t gone our way so far. Again, I look at the period we played. The way we have to play all the time is that intense uh hard to play against. That was our reputation last year. You know, we’re hard out and uh this year we haven’t been able to kind of we’ve seen flashes of it, but certainly not enough. So, but we’re not throwing the towel. We we uh we know we’ve got a lot of work to do. There’s three quarters of the season left. Um, and uh, we just have to keep working and and we know we’ve got good players here. We got a good veteran group. We’ve got some younger players that push. We got a great young goalending and goending tandem, but we have to put it all together. We’ve uh, we talk about it, but at the end of the day, there’s no there’s no red you don’t get a medals or red ribbons in this league. It’s winning or losing. And uh, we haven’t done enough winning. Let me let me ask you a question, Robert. He can read the standings as much as anyone else can. Did anyone really expect him to use the phrase we’re throwing in the towel 21 and a half games in? No. I mean, as the president of the team, you you can’t say that because now the thing is when you’re doing an interview like this, you you have to appease players. You have to appease fans, your co-workers, your ownership group. There’s a lot of stakeholders who you’re you’re trying to send a message to. And if he comes out and says, you know, the season’s over, well, that’s telling the players that you might as well quit. And you can’t do that as the president, but at the same time, he’s he’s trotting out the same company line that that they did last season. We have a good veteran team. You know, we’re we’re a hardworking team. All this kind of stuff. It’s like, well, every team in the NHL is a hardworking team. You need you need more than that to build to become a contender. It just it felt a little tonedeaf. It the fans, you admit it was a disappointing start to the season. So, I mean, obviously, you started off on the right on the right uh the right note there. My thing though is just the fans know what’s going on. Calgary is a very savvy hockey market with a lot of smart fans. We all know what’s happening. And for him to come out and say, you know, we have a good team. We have really good veterans. You know, we’re we’re still in the mix. It’s like, ah, like, you know, you’re lying to us. He never said in the mix. He said there’s a lot there’s still threequarters of the season left. Well, he might as well said that thing. Uh threequarters of the season left. I believe uh heading into this game when you factor in points percentage they were somewhere around 12 to 13 points out of a playoff spot. Yeah. You you take a look at like playoff odds you know at the Athletic and Dom’s model they’re like 2% right now. So to me it’s just it’s just tell the tell the truth. Tell the fans they were they were one and a half% heading into tonight. Oh yeah. Not great. What what what did you think of that answer? H I mean you know I think the problem is we’re I will say this. We’re basically watching them play a poker game right now. Um, and so I don’t think it would really like, okay, we I think they’ve been very clear like Rasmus or not uh Michael Bland during the European player tour flat out said, “Yeah, they’re going to trade Anderson.” And yeah, they’re going to trade Anderson. I think that’s sort of a foreground conclusion. He’s on a time pressure. They have the time pressure to move Anderson. I’m, you know, everything we’re hearing is fairly far apart on contract talks. these are not surprising statements. It was kind of refreshing actually to hear back say it in so many words. Uh other than that, I mean other than that, when you’re like, “Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. We can all read Puckedia. We kind of know when contracts end. Sure, that makes sense.” Other than that, I mean, you know, everything we’re hearing from insider case in point, uh, Pierre LeBron’s excellent, uh, you know, his Rumblings column at the Athletic, uh, today, you know, dropped I think this today the, uh, what, the Athletic either yesterday or today dropped their, uh, their trade board and Anderson’s number one because of course he is. And then Coleman is on it with a year left in his contract after this year. And Cadre with several years left is 21, I think. Uh, and with both those guys, the messaging we’ve heard from the insider class has been flames aren’t really in a hurry to move anybody, which you know, it’s it’s like when you know, when you’re you know, you’re you’re you’re at the you’re at the the food court, you’re a little bit hungry, but you’re not starving yet, so you don’t really need to make a decision. So, you’re like, let’s see what see what’s good out there. You’re willing to listen to offers, but you’re not really going to just rush and shove people out of the way to get to Taco Bell because you’re hungry right now. and you know the way they’re communicating everything. Uh the the the tone of that interview you know kind of spoke to me as h you know we kind of we’re doing our thing you know if you want to make an offer you know you know get pick up the phone but we’re not we’re not in a hurry to do much man you know. Yeah. The the the thing for me is I really hope Craig Connor’s gone out there and said, “Hey, we’re open for business.” And between now and the trade deadline, this is what I’m looking for. And if you meet it, great. We’ll we’ll make a move. But like like you said, I’m I’m not in a hurry to do it. But I really hope Craig’s going out there and saying, “Hey, I want I want a first round pick and a top prospect for Nasman Cadri.” Establish that with with the people who are going to be in that marketplace and then just let a bidding war happen over the next like few months here. That’s that’s what I want to see. But if you listen to every single NHL insider, they’re all saying literally the exact same thing that they’re not willing to do this right now. They’re not willing to to even like really entertain trade topics right now. That just that doesn’t make sense to me. I I think you’re hearing the words, not hearing the message behind the words. It’s, you know, the when you hear Darren Dreger say that people around ownership are telling him that they’re not, you know, they’re not in a hurry to trade Nazim Cadri, for example, that he said he doesn’t want to trade. what’s in brackets behind that is at the prices they’re being offered and so you know but that doesn’t really sound like what like what’s going on to me you know when you listen to Dreger he’s basically saying ownership does not want to trade Nazam Cadri and when Flames fans hear that during the season they’re having and considering they haven’t made the playoffs the last three years and the future does not look great with this current core group you roll your eyes at that you’re like come on everybody can see everybody in the hockey world can see that this team desperately certainly needs to rebuild and they need to move on from these veterans and take advantage of this and everything we hear from the management and ownership is that you know what we actually kind of like this group and we want to be competitive next year and like devil’s devil’s advocate we’ve never heard from ownership we have never heard from ownership okay I’ve covered the team for 15 years I’ve never directly heard from ownership uh you hear secondhand from ownership yeah but you know but like like Pier Lebr said in his article today that ownership doesn’t want to trade Cadri Darren Dger said like all you know every insider is saying it and now you’re hearing Pegnota say that there’s a disconnect and you know to me that screams ownership wants to keep this thing going and they want to keep the train rolling and maybe management wants to take a step back and and you know do some in the future but I believe we have more clips let’s roll it does the start change any of the direction for the club from a management standpoint maybe opportunities or uh whatever it might be no not really you know we’re always taking a longterm point of view as Zay’s a good example of it. You know, he he came in last year at the end of the year and he had such an impressive game at the end of the year, but uh you come into training camp, he was dealing with a little injury and uh I think he got behind the eight, but I really think this injury might be a blessing for him. Gets a chance to reset, take a deep breath. Not everybody comes in the league at 19year-old and years old and he’s a star. He’s going to be a terrific player. He’s going to be a terrific player. He just needs some more time for some physical and development and then understand the league. And so we just uh everything we do and Craig, we look at it long term. Is this the right place for him? And are we doing the right thing for him? People think we make decisions. The players often make the decision for us. And uh hopefully Shane Zayn will get back and uh and we’ll see where it goes from here. Well, Shane Perk. I like that. I mean, it sounds like a name. What What you What do you think of that answer? I mean again it’s sort of it’s very much what we’ve heard before. I mean you know a it’s sort of reusing a true livingism of you take your cues from your team uh which we’ve heard in various forms from various executives for the flames hell dating back to I’ve heard it dating back to al coats. I mean, yeah, you take your cues from the team and you know, when you’re like, I don’t know. I think when you’re the team that the Flames are this season and you’re behind the eightball, like I will I will, as much as I’m playing devil’s advocate, I will fundamentally agree with you with the premise that like, okay, let’s be honest here. If they make zero trades whatsoever this year, they’re still based on this start they’ve gotten off to, there is a very good chance they’re well positioned for the draft lottery, making zero more moves. Uh it is just it’s virtually impossible to dig out from this kind of a hole even if everyone starts playing the way they did last year. Um I think heading into this game to get to 94 points they had to play 664 hockey and I believe two Flames teams in franchise history have played that over an 82 game clip or an 80 game clip. I think one of them was uh the 8788 Flames which uh won the President’s Trophy and were the best team in franchise history and I think the other team that was second in that ranks was the 2122 Flames. Yeah, that makes sense. That or the Yeah, it was the 2122 Flames. So, so yeah, you do take your cues from the team and I do think they have they’ve been taking a long-term view of things. I don’t think like this year I don’t think the plan was oh boy golly they’re gonna stay in the mix and then trade everything but the kitchen sink out if they were close to get over the line. I think they were basically they looked at last year’s team went okay uh Frost with a full training camp and a good summer probably feels better about where he is. He’s take I think he’s been better. Farabby same thing. Perk comes in maybe he has some growing pains in the first half. I don’t think they could have anticipated the injuries. Uh how how physically overwhelmed he’s been at times. Uh but you know, I wanted Zary to step up, you know. Yeah, I think if you look at the as much as as much as a lot of last year’s team was, good lord, they got some good bounces last year, a lot of guys had good years, but a lot of guys that had good years were young and could conceivably continue trending upward. So, I don’t think you had to squint too hard to see them take a step. But I would also argue that the the step they would take would be going from barely missing the playoffs to barely making the playoffs. I think that was sort of the maturation process they would see. And then maybe next summer you would entertain a Coleman move. Like say this year you’d, you know, you play the year, get close, try to get try to get in over the line. If you do, great. If you don’t, it’s a good experience for the kids. You trade Anderson for whatever you can get for him, ideally a first and yada yada yada. And then summer, if you get good offers for Coleman, good. You move Coleman and put in a kid. You don’t have any kids that are pushing him out right away. Maybe you hold on to Coleman and do the same thing you did with Anderson and trade him in the summer in the that the deadline or whatever because, you know, as much as Anderson didn’t have a great year last year. I still think teams were would be lining up for a right shot defenseman. Same with Blake Coleman. Blake Coleman could play on my team any day of the week. I don’t when when slash if Blake Coleman is wearing another sweater. I don’t think it’ll be because anyone with a Flames uh resume has any ill will. I think it’s just it’s just business. Uh I think he’s he he wears a letter for a reason. He’s very well regarded. But at the same time, when you get off to the start that you do, I don’t think you say it changes everything, Brendan. But I also don’t think you go it doesn’t change, you know, it’s I think you sort of you take you have the you gain the ability to do some of the things the Flames are currently doing like they have a 23 23-year-old defenseman playing in their top four with their best defenseman right now. And turnover aside, I thought Yanuas has been very he was very good tonight. He’s been very good in through his first eight games this year. I’m pretty sure he’s going to play 10 games and he’ll lose his waiver exemption because he’s been good. Uh, but if you’re if you’re if you don’t get out to an ugly start, you probably don’t feel like you can audition Yankees Nats off, right? If you don’t get out to a bad start, you probably don’t feel like you can audition Sam Wharton, right? If you don’t get off to a bad start, you don’t feel like you can claim Johnny Beecher off waiverss and then, you know, let’s see how he does. So, I don’t know. I I would have said very similar things, but I can see why some fans would be kind of non plused by some of the the phraseology. The the line that I didn’t like is when he said, you know, the players make decisions for us. So, or sometimes the players make decisions for us and you know, you take your cues from your team. I actually I don’t agree with that. I think if you have a long-term plan, I think you stick to it even if you do have a miracle season like the Flames did last year. In my opinion, like I wrote an article about this last year. I thought the Flames were a bad hockey team that was that was being held up by a really good goalender and a hot start. They they were not a good team between November 1st and and March 1st. It was about 75% of the season. They were dead last in in goals scored by about 15. Next closest team to them was the Nashville Predators. Like they were they were a bad team last year, but Dustin Wolf held them in there. So when I hear him say, “Oh, like you know, you take your cues from your team.” Well, if you do that, then you say, “Oh, this is a 96 point team last year. Like, we missed the playoffs by one point. You know, they were a good team. Let’s let’s keep going with this group.” But if you actually like dive into it, they you look at it, they were not a very good team last year. They weren’t a very good team the year before. That’s where you need the long-term vision. That’s where you need to stick to that long-term plan because it just feels like they’re delaying the inevitable each year as as we continue to get closer to the opening of Scotia Place. like it just feels like they’re going to have to rebuild here and they just continue to to push it out and then it’s a little frustrating and for this year like for me it’s not about just getting into the draft lottery. It’s also about collecting more assets for the future as well. So number one, if if you trade a cadger or you trade Anderson, maybe even a Coleman, then you really bottom out. Then you really give yourself a good position in the lottery. And then on top of that, you also get probably additional first round picks. You probably get additional young players. And then it just kind of continues to to build for the time Scotia Place opens for the first or second year when when you hope to be a contender. That’s that’s I think what Flames fans want to see. They just want to see that long-term plan being put into place and not change it every single year where it’s, oh, we got 96 points. We’re going to change our plan. Oh, now we got 60 points. Now we’re going to change our plan to this and then we’re going to get back to 85 points. Oh, maybe we’re actually decent. We’re going to change our plan again. That’s kind of what it feels like is going on in the front office a little bit. Do we have more clips or is that all we got? I think we got one more. One more. Okay. We’re not rushing these players and that’s why we’re I know everybody wants this uh rebuild a little quicker than he said it rebuild to old uh see the young players, but we’re just determined not to throw young players in before they’re ready. It it doesn’t work. It’s no good for your culture. We go into the season, we want to win hockey games. We expect to be a playoff game. That’s how we have to enter in our minds every season. Obviously, we’re 20 games, 20 plus games in. We are always reassessing, re-evaluating. So, we’re just uh we want to, you know, we’re going to show up the next two periods and hopefully win them and then we’re going to go back home and play Dallas. We we got a team we want people want to watch and uh and be proud of. And uh I think last year the identity we we established as this hard out, this hardworking competitive team, that’s who we are. As we evolve and bring in more young players into our system, so when they’re ready, they’re going to get a chance. Yeah, part of me kind of felt bad for him. Um well, honestly, Craig Craig’s better with the media. Honestly, Craig should probably be doing those interviews moving forward. But um the the the one thing in there that that Maloney said that kind of stood out to me was, you know, we want to make a we want to build a team that that the city’s proud of that that our fans are proud of. And I’d be curious to put it out to the chat here. You know, are you proud of this Calgary Flames team right now? Are you proud of the the the the current group and also the direction they’re going in? That’s that’s something I’d like to hear from the fans. I I got I latched on to a different part of the same sentence to be honest with you. Uh, I think the beginning of that sentence was, “We want to build a team people want to watch and be proud of.” Last year, if you want to be completely honest, the Flames were, you call them a bad team, I would call them a respectable team. They were in every game. They were a tough out. To be charitable, sometimes they’re they were not the most exciting hockey team in the world. And I think especially when you’re coming, if you’re a fan, a new fan, someone in your early 20s, early 30s, you’re probably some, you know, you’re someone who became a fan during the beginning of the True Living years where all of a sudden, you know, pretty quickly you had Sean Monahan, Johnny Gdro, Matthew Kachchuck, Sam Bennett, uh maybe Douggee Hamilton for a good chunk of that, Mark Jordano, uh you know, and the goalending was usually kind of okay, but Brody Backland, yeah, you you had a you had a a bunch of exciting players. And you know, right now, I don’t think the planes have bad players. I think they have many good players. But I just think the talent level they have right now, they don’t have anyone that gets you out of your seat. They don’t have the ability to play run hockey. And for them to be successful, they basically have to, it was, you know, we brought up that that just dreadfully boring game they played in Philadelphia during the last back-to-back set on the last road trip. And bless their hearts, that was the type of game they needed to play at that point. They they had lost a few in a row. They had looked fairly bad. Like they weren’t playing their style of hockey well, nor were they playing many styles of hockey well. And so they buckled down and played their style of game. And you know, when their offense was not coming as well as it did tonight, they had to play a boring game and basically drag Philly down into the muck. And they won. They they have been successful playing that in the past. The last couple years has basically been, you know, a team realizing that they might not have the the high-end talent they used to have, adapting very astutely and at times embracing a style of play that can at times be challenging for a a casual fan to watch and get excited about. And if you look at the team, I’d say the players that fans are most excited about, obviously Dustin Wolf, I would say he’s the closest thing they have to elite talent. I would almost when a good on a good night I think he is in late elite talent. Uh Coronado he’s probably their best natural goal scorer. He’s pretty exciting. Uh you know they have you know Zay Perk is an exciting player. They have some guys in the system. You know if you watch the Wranglers you know Matt Freden can be exciting. Handrevich can be exciting. They have guys that have flashes but I would just argue that they don’t have anyone right now uh at that GRO or Kachchuck echelon. And as I’m sure many of you in the comments have mentioned, the best way to get those guys is high in the draft. Uh sometimes you find them in the fourth round because they’re small in the USHL and everyone’s like, I don’t know. Uh but that’s, you know, some of the most exciting players in the franchise history are the guys they got early in the first round. Just Yeah, for sure. the the one last thing I’ll just I’ll add just about the Maloney interviews. He he kept going back to we’re we’re a very hardworking team and that like that’s what we’re all about. And that’s great. You you obviously want a hardworking team, but you can’t just build your entire identity on work ethic because there are other players on on the other teams that also work hard. Other teams work very hard. They also have work ethic. You can’t just rely on that as your as your overall strategy to win hockey games in my opinion. You have to add more to it. You have to add skill. you have to add, you know, more of more system play, more elite talent. Like, that’s that’s what really puts you over the top. You you add that along with work ethic, then you’re really cooking. So, you know, I get it. They’re they’re they’re trying to sell tickets. They’re trying to build excitement and and say this is a really hardworking team, but at some point it’s like you can’t just like build your entire identity on that. Hey buddies, thanks for watching. We appreciate it. Also, if you could throw in a like and subscribe, it does help us out with what it is we are doing. and check out more at flamesnation.ca.

Pike and Robert break down Don Maloney’s intermission interview, reacting to his thoughts on the first period, the opening 21 games of the season, and the performance of the Flames’ young players. With fans fired up online after the interview, the guys dig into what Maloney’s comments really mean and what direction this franchise is actually heading.

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