Former Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving “needed a break,” according to the man tasked with replacing him.
Turns out it’s probably more of a not me, it’s you situation.
And now the Calgary Flames are reportedly blocked He’s making a living exploring new opportunities in the NHL — at least until his current contract expires on June 30.
Now, before we start tarnishing the ownership of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation because the optics initially seem nefarious, let’s consider that this may be more of a business decision than a personal one.
Remember, the current President of Hockey Operations and Interim GM is a close friend.
It’s within the Calgary Flames franchise’s right to say no to teams that might want to interview Treliving for one of the many jobs around the league right now — Pittsburgh among them.
Although they “mutually agreed to part ways” with Treliving’s contract, which was set to expire at the end of next month, the then-GM informed his bosses after the season that he had no intention of returning the following year. He got the severance treatment, as any company tends to do when the next job will be with a competitor.
We all know that the Calgary Flames franchise is currently without a general manager and head coach at least in part due to the serious philosophical differences that existed with Treliving and Daryl Sutter. The team clearly now sees things the way Treliving did months ago, when he reportedly called for Sutter’s firing himself. But by the time the team realized through exit interviews that many key players also wanted the bench boss gone, it was too late to salvage the Treliving relationship.
His nearly decade-long tenure in Calgary wasn’t perfect, but one area he did well was the NHL Entry Draft. He’s been able to restock the prospect cupboards pretty well with the likes of Connor Zary, Jakob Pelletier, Matt Coronato, Jeremie Poirier and Dustin Wolf looking like solid future NHL pieces. Ramus Anderson, Andrew Mangiapane and Oliver Kylington were value picks that proved to be important pieces to the current core.
And former top talents Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk are making waves in the playoffs — albeit with the Florida Panthers.
So the Flames have decided Treliving’s next job will have to wait until after the draft.
It’s not personal. It’s a business. Competitive advantage over optics. They are not the first team to adhere to this schedule. The Flames definitely won’t be the last.
We’ll find out in another six weeks or so how long Treliving really wanted to take this break.