There aren’t many people who know the ins-and-outs of the Calgary Flames quite like Peter Hanlon.
There might not be anybody.
After nearly three decades as the vice-president of communications for the organization, Hanlon will be moving down the hall and joining the hockey operations team as a new assistant general manager.
“He’s got a long history in hockey and I know communications was the title, but that doesn’t mean it was everything,” said Flames GM Craig Conroy. “First of all, the work ethic, he’s been here with us for 27 years and has done it all for us.
“We’ve always talked about an opportunity down here with hockey ops and you get busy and don’t think about it, but there’s so many things that keep changing and the work that needs to get done, staffs continue to get bigger and you have more people that report to you and it just felt like it was time for Peter to come down and join us officially. He’s always here anyways, he’d be down here 20 times a day but now it’s just official.”
Hanlon joined the Flames at the beginning of the 1997-98 season and will begin his new duties in the hockey operations department on July 1.
He’ll join a management team that’s led by president of hockey operations Don Maloney, general manager Craig Conroy, assistant general managers Brad Pascall and Dave Nonis and special advisor to the GM Jarome Iginla.
“I’m very pleased with the opportunity, and more so because of the confidence of ownership and Craig and Don Maloney that they’ve shown to bring me over in that capacity,” Hanlon said. “I’ve always worked so closely with our hockey operations group for many years, but now to get to work with them, and especially Craig, who I’ve been with since he came to Calgary as a player, I’m just really looking forward to working with him even closer on a daily basis. I’m very pleased and I’m honoured with the opportunity, and more so with the confidence.”
Hanlon has worked in the hockey world for over 30 years, beginning his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate, who were playing in St. John’s, Newfoundland at the time. He was then recruited to work at the AHL head office before joining the Flames.
He has considerable experience at the international level, too, having been a part of Team Canada at the 2002 Olympics, multiple world championships and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
That’s experience the Flames clearly put a lot of stock in.
“We used to go to junior games together, go to games on the road and before the game I’d say ‘We’re here to watch these five players and really key in on them’ and Peter has a great understanding of what we’re looking for, the types of players, the character of the players and what it means to be a Calgary Flame,” Conroy said. “When you’re looking at players, we want you to pick players who you want to see pull that jersey on. That’s the most important thing.”