The Prodigal Son returns:
The Conroy re-acquisition is a fairly complex one. It's difficult to simply look at his stats line and determine his potential value to his new/old team. One can't rightly assume Conroy will step back into the Flames top 6, where he presided during his previous tour of duty, and make an offensive impact. Not only does Calgary have a fairly adept existing top 6 group of forwards (Iginla, Langkow, Hueslius, Tanguay, Lombardi, Kobasew), Conroy the player is now 35 and probably on the downslope of his career. Truth be told, many people would argue Conroy was unfairly pressed into the #1 center role previously thanks to Calgary's lack of depth at the position. Now, with Langkow and Lombardi having career seasons, he can most likely be settled into the 3rd line, two-way centerman role he is better suited for.
Further complicating the matter is the fact that, since leaving the Flames, Conroy has been both excellent and dreadful in LA. Last season, he spent most of his time skating between Pavol Demitra and Alexander Frolov atop the King's #1 forward unit. He was 2nd on the team in points with 66 and scored 22 goals. He also ranked 4th on the club in terms of +/- with a +13 ranking. This year however, Conroy seems to be lost in the shuffle as LA rebuilds. He's generated only 16 points in 52 games and wasn't even getting as much icetime as Dustin Brown or Sean Avery. His +/- has been inverted to an ugly -13. It's possible, I suppose, that Crawford holds a grudge over the 03/04 upset of his precious Vancouver Canucks and has been misusing Conroy. It's also possible, however, that Conroy just isn't that good anymore.
There are peripheral implications to the Conroy trade that must be considered as well. While there's no doubt that the Flames are now a better club with Conroy skating in Lundmark's stead, the resultant stiffening of the Flames cap position, for an aging 3rd line center, may be harder to swallow come Summer time. So while the remainder of his salary for this season equates to a mere .883 cap hit, his relatively bloated $2.394 million for the 07/08 season salary may make re-signing or replacing the likes of Marcus Nilson and Roman Hamrlik a little more challenging in the off-season.
So what was Sutter thinking? Pragmatically I would argue Sutter, like me, has been dissatisfied by the play of the Flames supporting cast this year. Calgary is scoring, thanks to the increased efficacy of the top sixers, but has failed to excel at other areas of the game such as penalty killing and face-offs. Further, the Flames tend to get eaten alive on the road, partially thanks to the fact that opposition coaches are able to get their big guns out against Calgary's 3rd and 4th lines. My guess is Sutter thinks Conroy's veteran presence, as well as his face-off acumen and tendeceny towards defensive responsibility, will solidify the bottom 6 group and make them less of a "sheep to wolf" collective while Calgary's away from the dome. While it's true Lundmark was an accomplished face-off man, he was smallish and basically useless everywhere else on the ice. In Conroy, the Flames now have a third-line center that can win draws AND puck battles in the corner.
Supplementary to the on-ice improvement is Conroy's lockerroom presence. It's been reported in the wake of the trade that Sutter met with Iginla after his team's whimpering exit from the play-offs last season in order to identify and potentially address what went wrong. Jarome apparently responded that the Flames lacked a Conroy-like presence in the dressing room. Popular, vivacious and outspoken, Conroy no doubt adds both veteran savy AND an element of fun and exuberance to the Flame's social dynamic. It certainly doesn't hurt that Conroy knows - and excelled under - the Flames system playing with the club's franchise player.
Finally, Sutter is no doubt well equated with the difficulty of motivating a hockey team during the doldrums of mid-season. With the novelty of the year's start worn-off and the play-offs far off in the distance, even NHL pros sometimes find it difficult to remain interested and engaged amidst the constant grind around this time of the year. Watching the Flames sleepwalk through the most recent roadtrip tends to add some credibility to this claim (year long road struggles aside). Conroy not only adds a presence that is both grateful and excited to be playing in Calgary, perhaps stirring some emotion from some of the other players, but also a center that can incite some friendly competition for ice-time. Lombardi, for instance, is a player who's icetime totals may be bequeathed to Connie should he struggle for a game or two.
Overall and in conclusion, I like the trade. It makes the team better right now and brings back a player I liked a lot. If Conroy can doff his season long slump and at least partially re-discover the form that made him so effective here previously, none of us may be overly concerned about the salary cap implications next year.
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As an added twist to the story, Calgary plays LA tonight at the Dome. The Kings were the worst team in the WC before the trade, and now they have Jamie Lundmark instead of Craig Conroy. They are 2-7-1 in their last 10 games and have an even bigger eyesore of a road record than Calgary: 6-17-0. Not to mention the Flames now have the nearly automatic emotional boost of a trade to put pep into their strides as well as some points on the board (it's a rule of thumb that a new player almost always gets a point or two in his first game with a new team). In addition, word is Robyn Regehr will be back in the line-up today, hopefully pushing the deadful Andrea Susan back into the press-box...
Yup. All signs point to "win", methinks. Let's go with a 5-2 Flames victory. Conroy, Tanguay (2), Phaneuf, Lombardi with the Flames goals. Kopitar and Visnovski for the Kings.
GO FLAMES!
