Flames press conference transcript: Departure of GM Brad Treliving

Transcript of Calgary Flames media conference on April 17 with president and chief executive officer John Bean and president of hockey operations Don Maloney, responding to the news that general manager Brad Treliving had left the team..

John Bean

Earlier today we announced that the Calgary Flames and Brad Treliving have mutually agreed to part ways. Brad's contract expires on June 30. And he will not return as the Flames general manager for next season. 

On behalf of the Flames, ownership, management and fans, we want to sincerely thank Brad for his nine years of dedication to our organization and our city. You'd be hard-pressed to find a harder worker, no harder manager than Brad. He brought the best to the rink each and every day, and for that, we were very grateful, but as an organization, we need to move on. 

We're pleased to announce that Don Maloney has been promoted to president of hockey operations effective immediately. He will also hold the position of interim general manager. Don joined us back in 2016 and has held the position of senior vice president of hockey operations since 2017. 

Don's experience is extensive and includes nine seasons as the executive vice president and general manager of the Arizona Coyotes and 10 seasons as a member of the New York Rangers front office, serving as the team's vice president of player personnel and assistant general manager. Don's first priority will be to help us secure the services of a new general manager. And that's a process that will begin today. 

And at this time, I'll turn the mic over to Don.

Don Maloney

Thanks, John. Today is not a good day for me. The Stanley Cup playoffs start tonight, and we're not playing, No. 1. No. 2 is … I get emotional, sorry. Brad Treliving is a good friend and I think a very good hockey man. He left us for his reasons, but we move on. 

I do want to thank the ownership group of Calgary Sports and Entertainment and certainly John (Bean) for keeping me on. If I was in their place, I might have taken me to the city line and told me to face east, start walking and never return based on the job we did this year. 

My first task from John and the ownership is to do a deep analysis of this season. We have a team that I believe should have been in the playoffs. Not only make the playoffs but to be a team (that's) a hard out in the playoffs. We didn't and we failed to achieve, and that starts at the management level, which I was a part of. It's the coaching, the players, the training, the entire organization, we have to do a deep look in how we operate, how we make decisions and fix it. 

We have a good team, good players here. No question we'll be back next season better and hungrier, bu we can't just keep talking about it, we have to do it. It's very, very mixed feelings on my part that I'm here, but we're going to work very, very hard to bring a championship team to Calgary and that's the goal.

Question 

Don, what's your timeline in terms of hiring a general manager?

Don Maloney  

Right now, I'm still in the evaluation process of the team. In my former role, I was around the team a lot, moreso in the last two or three months just to try and get a handle on what was going on, but I was still on the periphery of it. I didn't spend a lot of time around the players. I felt that Brad and Darryl (Sutter) were the voices. 

Now it's a deep dive for me to get to the players, get to the staff and find out from them firsthand what they think the issues are, why we're sitting here today and not suiting up for a game tonight or tomorrow night. So I don't have a timeline in the sense of I don't have a list of the names. 

One thing John and I — we'll be working on this together — John had a very good suggestion yesterday when he talked about it is to get the format in place, the template per se, for what we want in a GM. What are we looking for, what's important for Calgary. Obviously, John has ideas, I have ideas through my experience, and together, we're going to figure out what we need for this group of players and how we bring success here.

 So we haven't started that process. I don't see it dragging out for a year and a half, nor do I think it's going to be Friday that we're going to have a new manager.

Question

Is it safe to say that this came together quite quickly for you in terms of your expanded role with the organization?

Don Maloney 

No, we had some conversations this season. Brad, as you all know, and it was reported, was offered an extension, was wanted back, in training camp to begin and several times. So there was a point that John and I had a conversation and in full transparency with Brad, the first thing John asked me, 'Are you guys a partnership? Do you guys both go together?' And my feeling was I like it in Calgary. I like the people. I like the personnel. I like the staff. I like working with them. 

Really, I thought for sure Brad would re-sign, and I'm as close to him as anybody. Up to when he told me Wednesday he couldn't do it, that was the first time that the reality was that he is he just needs to take some time. 

That job, the general manager's job, I've done it a long time. One of the things John had asked me when we originally met was 'Do you want to be the manager?' I can do the job, I know the job, I'd done it a long time, but I don't think I'm the right person for this team. I think he needs somebody younger, progressive, inventive, hockey acumen and background certainly plays a part, but we're going to get the best person we think we can win with and then support that person. 

We had some conversations of what happens in the worst-case scenario that Brad does leave, and this is this is why I'm sitting here today.

Question

Getting the input for the players, were you involved in any of the exit meetings or anything like that?

Don Maloney  

I sat in all the exit meetings with all the players, and we've gone through the coaching staff. I'm meeting Darryl tomorrow or Wednesday depending on if he has some family things he's taking care of. There are a few other things I'm looking at. I'll have a better handle on the ideas that people have of why we so badly underachieved.

Question 

Was there any reason Brad gave to either of you about why he wasn't going to come back?

John Bean

Decisions like this are really difficult. There are lots of layers to the onion, if you like, and we're not going to do today is peel back the onion into the layers. We had good conversations with Brad. Brad and I will remain friends. There's no door slamming, but we agreed that we're going to part ways.

Question

There is a perception that management and coaching staff maybe weren't aligned this season. Do you imagine that was any factor at all, or … ?

John Bean

Again, I'm not gonna get into the granularity of this. It's a tough-enough decision today, and we've got to get our eyes on the horizon and go forward now versus grinding through that.

Question  

Don, what is the status of the assistant general managers under Brad?

Don Maloney 

They're certainly candidates and strong candidates for the position, but we also realize we be short sighted short-sightednot to go out there and find the best candidate, and maybe one of them is. We haven't even started that process yet. Certainly both Craig Connery and Brad Pascal. Obviously, Chris Snow is a very important part of this organization, but with his health reasons, obviously, he's … but he'll be continued to be a very important part of our management group.

Question 

Are any of them under contract right now or even extended?

John Bean

They're all under contract. We're not going to go through a public list of every staff member. We have 300 full-time staff members. We don't publish when the contracts are up for renewal and when we renew them. Currently, everyone on our staff is under contract.

Question

Understanding you don't want to peel back the onion today, as you said, is it a concern for the organization when someone in the general manager's role says, 'No thanks, I'm ready to move on'?

John Bean

Again, there's a lot that goes into this. We attempted early on to, and then Brad and I both agreed to pause the decision when he wasn't prepared to make it back early on. Then we get to this point in time that (the season is) over, we're out of the playoffs, and we meet again. At that point in time, we both agree maybe we shouldn't extend.

Question

The past sort of calendar year — Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, now Brad Treliving — there've been a number of fairly prominent people who have chosen not to be here and not to stay with the Flames organization. Why do you think that is? And what can be done to make this more desirable?

John Bean

I don't think we're going get into this is some sort of snowball rolling down a hill. I think each one of those have individual circumstances and reasons for their decisions. I'm not going to retread and rehash the last two, and I'm not going to get too deep on this one. We have a great organization. We have a great city. We have a really good team. I'm with Don on this. This is painful to come into work today on a Monday and not be in the playoffs. We have a good team. We've got to make some decisions, go forward and have better success next year.

Question  

Is Darryl Sutter your coach next season or does that have to be reviewed?

Don Maloney

I am reviewing everything in the organization in management, coaching, players, scouting. First of all with … what happened and why we underachieved, how we make this the best organization to attain our goals.

Question 

For both of you, it's pretty evident on your face today how hard this is. John, is that about as difficult a resignation situation as you've ever been involved in in business when Brad and you kind of had that hard end-of-the-line conversation?

John Bean

It's interesting. Brad's a great guy and we talked about how we're going to have bourbons this summer at the lake because he's got a place out in the Okanagan, and we go hang out there as well. We're going to remain friends. And you know, you kind of get it. He's been here nine years. 

These are really high-pressure jobs. They're exhausting at times. You can say that they look glamorous, and it's all fun, but it's it's hard work. There comes a point in time, whether you're a general manager or you're something else, that you come to a conclusion that maybe I need to give my body and my brain a break. So yeah, it is tough.

Don Maloney

I think part of it, if you think back to last summer, and the difficult challenges that we had with the players that were leaving us, and the job that Brad did to it, that's you know, that's him, you know, with the work you put in and the agents and the players and the teams and the trades. We're in here all August, and I'm on the sidelines and trying to help, but he's the one that's making all the calls until midnight, and I really do think that it took its toll. And after eight, nine years, he just needs a break. He needs a break from what he was doing. 

Question 

Were you told before or after the Sharks game that Brad wouldn't be back?. What were you told on Wednesday? 

Don Maloney  

(Brad and I) talk every day, five times a day. He came in my office and sat down and we were just talking. That was the first time he actually said ‘I don't think I'm coming back.’ That was on Wednesday morning. And then he met with John, obviously, after we our season ended, and obviously John and Brad spoke.

Question

Save for 2004, this organization hasn't gotten out of the second round since the Stanley Cup back in 1989. And fans are clamouring for a rebuild. After this type of season, do you anticipate sort of a fundamental shift in how this organization runs its hockey operations given there hasn't been that real playoff run in close to 20 years now?

John Bean  

We're all dying for a deeper playoff run. There's no doubt about it. But you know, we can take a deep breath here. That's what Don's going to do and take a look and you're gonna look at both your and talk to the players. And you're going to do a deep dive into the analytics as well. 

And before you overreact, you don't want to under-act, but you don't want to overreact because do you know what we have? We've got a Vezina-nominated goalie. I would keep him next year and I can't wait to see Jacob come back and play next year. And we've got a really strong defence. And you watch Mackenzie Weegar took some time to kind of get in, but boy the second half of the season, (he was) awesome. We've got a great lineup that underperformed. 

So before we start … you used the word, not me. I'm not allowed to ever use the word rebuild. But no, we're not going to overreact here. We'll take our time, do the analysis, and come up with the next step. Everyone a year ago, by the way, looked at us and went 'holy mackerel!', right? And that's why you drop the puck and play the game. And (this season) didn't quite play out the way we thought it would. But boy oh boy, a year ago, it was like a coronation here, so welcome to sports. And there isn't just an A to a B. If there was, everyone else would be doing it, but it's hard, but we're going to do our best

Question 

Don, I'm just gonna say that I know it's disappointing obviously because you and Brad are good friends, but in the same sense, it is probably pretty exciting for you that you're going to have your footprint on this thing. And from the top down sort of looking at this entire organization.

Don Maloney 

Brad, he treated me like a partner in my role here. I treated Brad, when he was in Arizona, (like) we were partners … Titles really aren't important to me. It's certainly I'm thankful to be able to have this opportunity to help put this thing back in the direction that we need to be on to win a Cup. I'm not popping champagne and doing backflips today in this room. There's a lot of work here that we have to do and get some answers to why we're sitting here today.

Question 

John, can you speak to I guess it's still fresh and the journey still begins for you today, but the interest for the job. Have you already seen text messages, emails, or that sort of thing? You know, people just currying favour with you just trying to see if that GM job is one that's still available?.

Don Maloney 

I could show you my phone right now, since 10:30 …

John Bean

I left mine upstairs.

Don Maloney 

There are people texting me that I haven't heard of in 15 years that are saying, 'you know, I think I can do the job', but …

John Bean

Don, there might even be some sportscasters …

Don Maloney 

Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Call John. I've got enough problems. But no, again, prior to the obviously the statement put out it was very confidential in the sense that we didn't … nothing really leaked, obviously … but certainly you'll hear from people that had the role in the past and have experience, and again, it's all part of finding that right person.

Question

You joked about you're not allowed to use the word rebuild. Is there not an understanding, though, that at some point, in the evolution of every organization, every pro sport, at some point, a rebuilding cannot be out of the question?

John Bean

I think you have to look at it's a point in time, for sure. And you've got to look at the assets you have in front of you and decide. And we would have done that a year ago, quite frankly, when we had a deal on the table for Matthew (Tkachuk). There was there was a rebuild deal, and then there's a build-the-team-because-we've-got-a-lot-of-good-pieces point in time. So there was a reflection point a year ago, and that will be a point in time, and we'll reflect again at the right point in time.

Question

Don, do you expect to see Brad, in another general manager role soon?

Don Maloney

Soon? No. At some point, yes. He's very good. He just needs a mental break for a little bit, and if that's what he wants to do. He has a lot of things in his life that he could do. But no, to me, if he is available down the road, I'm sure he'll be on any team's interview list, in my opinion. I think he's that good. 

Question

It was mentioned in the release that the next candidate would want to build upon the work that Brad has done. I was just wondering if you can go into more detail about what exactly you're looking for in the next general manager for the Calgary Flames.

Don Maloney

Again, I haven't started to focus on that at all. My task right now, has been for the last four days, is this year and the analysis we're doing for what happened and how we move forward, and just to get a better handle on what we think went wrong, once we start the process of getting ideas to what we're looking for in that role. That's going to take some time. 

I'll be looking for insights from John and his business experience. We have people here in the office that are experienced, and certainly part of the process is reaching out to the people that I know from being in the game so long. It's the people you really, really like and respect to say to 'do you have any ideas on on a manager? Who's the next guy? Who's the next really sharp guy that's ready for a shot?

John Bean

I'll layer on that a little bit. So you're going to talk about a decision matrix and about the qualities that you'd want, right? And you're going to start with leadership. You can go to your Stephen Covey leadership books and determine what the characteristics of a strong leader are, but you're talking about someone you trust, someone that's got great communication skills. 

You go through the list. We're going to come up with a matrix, and someone's going to be pure leadership. Then you're going to narrow it down into subject matter expert, and then you're going to get into other characteristics like energy and ability to deal with stress. There's a whole approach here that we'll take and apply that methodology.

Question 

John, since it came up on Friday, can you update us on the state of arena? Any real discussions that are going on?

John Bean  

I can't hear you, your phone broke up? (laughs) I can't say much publicly. What I can say is what we've actually said and what Sonya Sharp from the event centre committee has said is that there are conversations going on, which is a good thing. But that's about as much as we can say at this point.

Question 

Related to that big picture, any concerns about the attendance down the stretch, not many sell-outs, when this team was pushing for a spot? 

John Bean  

You know what, if I told you we were really excited for how we ended the year, and we had projections as to how we thought we'd come out of COVID and where we ended up, and we did better than we thought we would. So we're pretty encouraged by what happened. 

Were the last couple of games soft? Yeah, they were. We were seven points out of a playoff spot. We were trying to sell tickets to the last four games, that's never helpful. He's (points at Don) got to do a better job so we don't have that hard sell to do. But no, we're really happy other than not being in the playoffs, which is a gut punch. We've had a good year, and we really appreciate all the support of the fans. It's been awesome.

Question

Don, you mentioned you were you were in on player exit interviews. Are there any themes, or what was the feedback that guys gave you as to what went wrong on the ice or in the room? What were themes that they touched on in those meetings?

Don Maloney

I don't want to talk about that today. There will be a time when we can talk about it. I'm not through my evaluation. 

In these interviews, there's a lot said. A lot of times, these exit interviews are a 10-minute 'how are you? What do you think? What are you doing this summer? Good luck. If you need, help call us' (situation), but this was a sort of an in-depth interview process, so I'm not in a position that I want to speak on it. 

I still have to digest it, and I don't know about you, when I do interviews, I take a lot of notes and then I have to summarize the notes and then digest the notes and I'm not there yet.