The big debate between the analytics folks and the old style hockey men is about eyeballs. The geeks think you get more from looking at a spreadsheet, while the scouts trust their eyes more than they’ll ever trust any Corsi or Fenwick number.
When it comes to hockey men like Brad Treliving however, it is 100 percent about eyeballs. Eyeballs that have seen him at hockey arenas stretching from the National Hockey League, through the American League, the ECHL, major junior and college, as often or more than any other guy in the business.
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He’s not easy to miss at about six-foot-five, but the size of Treliving’s acumen was forged up high in the corners of hundreds of hockey rinks, and he’s got the rental car miles to prove it.
“I’m ready for this. I know I’m ready for this,” Treliving said on Monday, when he left his post as assistant general manager of the Phoenix Coyotes to be announced as the newest GM of the Calgary Flames. “I know the expectations of this market, and I know the expectations of the fan base. I know I’m ready for it.”
He is the grandson of a Virden, Man., barber, and the son of Jim Treliving, the co-owner of the Boston Pizza chain and mainstay on the TV show Dragon’s Den. He is a personnel man by trade, cut from the Jim Nill, Tim Murray, Kevin Cheveldayoff mould, and that is exactly what the Calgary Flames require. They’ll have five picks in the first three rounds in the June draft, and Brian Burke has already promised he won’t have any influence on Treliving at the draft table.
“Make no mistake — Brad is the GM of this hockey team,” the Flames president said at Monday’s press conference.
Burke will “guide” Treliving in his first crack at the GM post, and Treliving promised he’d be leaning on Burke’s mentorship “more often than probably he’d like.” Like almost every other NHL front office these days, Calgary now has two sharp hockey minds that come at the game from different angles.
“I like to build,” Treliving said. “We’re in the early stages of a building program (in Calgary), but we want to move it along.” And Burke, of course, loves to trade. This should be fun.
Nobody gets more bang for the buck than the Coyotes since the salary cap era began, and now Treliving joins Calgary, where money surely is not an issue. The depth of talent inside the organization clearly is, however.
The Flames have drafted abysmally, which is why they are where they are. You can say the same in Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto — and any other team that bottoms out the way the Flames have.
There are some pieces to start with however, like Sean Monahan, and a soon-to-be 31-year-old Mark Giordano on the blueline. Mikael Backlund may have finally figured it out up front, and Jay Feaster pick-up Karri Ramo just may turn into an ‘A’ goalie after all. The rest is work ethic, which truly defined the 27th place Flames this past season.
“This team had a will,” Treliving said. “It had an identity. That is due to Bob Hartley, (and) I can’t say how much that was respected (outside of Calgary).”
Under Treliving the Coyotes hit home runs at the draft with Oliver Ekman-Larsson (sixth overall in ’09) and Mikael Boedker (eighth overall in ’08). On the pro acquisitions side, Phoenix squeezed more out of guys like Mike Ribeiro and Antoine Vermette than many thought possible. They picked up goalie Mike Smith when his star was faded, and turned him into Canada’s No. 3 netminder in Sochi.
Whether it’s developing a draft pick like Keith Yandle or Martin Hanzal, or acquiring a sleeper like Radim Vrbata or Smith, Phoenix has earned a reputation as one of the NHL’s wisest evaluators and developers of talent. That is exactly what Burke requires underneath him in Calgary, where years of organizational neglect have dug the hole that consumes the Flames today.
Treliving and Burke could be the perfect one-two punch among cap system hockey management teams: Treliving, the bird dog who will help to build a farm system that stocks Calgary’s roster consistently and for years to come; and the brash, impatient Burke, whose resume was built on the kinds of trades that can help push this project along in the short term.
The question becomes, however, what happens when Burke inevitably wants to trade a draft pick or two to improve right now? Burke has always said, “I’d make that Kessel deal again today,” and can anyone see him standing by idly for what will be an elongated building process in Calgary?
Treliving is going to need all of his draft picks if he’s going to be able to bring to the table the player evaluation acumen that he was hired for.
It’s going to be fun in Calgary again. It may take a while, but this was a good hire.