Calgary Flames GM Craig Conroy once stood up to Darryl Sutter and instantly regretted it
Though Craig Conroy is serving as the GM of the Calgary Flames these days, plenty of the fan base still remembers him as a player.
Long before he was named the Flames’ GM, Conroy enjoyed an impressive 1,009-game career, 507 of which came wearing a Flames uniform. In other words, he’s been around the organization for a long stretch of time.
Along the way, Conroy crossed paths with plenty of key figures in franchise history, including Darryl Sutter.
Conroy had Sutter as a coach for parts of two seasons during his time in Calgary. The two crossed paths again when Sutter was rehired as the Flames’ head coach partway through the 2020-21 season, with Conroy serving as an assistant GM at the time.
As Flames fans know, Sutter built a reputation as one of the NHL’s most hard-nosed and intense coaches. While players have always had a ton of respect for him, his old-school approach led to more than a few blowups over the years.
Conroy can certainly attest to that.
In an interview with the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast earlier this week, the Flames GM shared a hilarious story of a time he attempted to stand up to Sutter during his playing days.
“So Darryl came in, and he’d been there a while now, and he was ripping guys. He came in and was ripping [Steve] Montador, ripping [everyone]. He was just going around the room killing us,” Conroy explained.
“And I don’t know why I did it; I just got pissed off finally, and I stood up, and I said, ‘You’re supposed to be this great coach, Darryl. Why don’t you help us instead of just ripping us and telling us how bad we are, actually help us?'”
At first, it seemed like Conroy’s outburst had worked, as Sutter left the room after saying he’d been waiting for somebody to finally stand up to him.
The sense of pride didn’t last very long, however.
“He walks back in with the lineup. He goes, ‘[Blair Betts], take Conroy’s spot.’ I didn’t play the rest of the game,” Conroy said. “Two periods I sat on the bench, I’m like, ‘Why would I have said anything? I am an idiot.'”
While Conroy admitted he was a nervous wreck for the rest of the evening, it didn’t take long for the two to patch things up.
“We played Edmonton the next night, and I bet you I played 30 minutes. All was good.”