Conroy admits Flames had opportunity to hire elite coach in 2012
The Calgary Flames had an opportunity to interview Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper in 2012.
Flames general manager Craig Conroy sat down for an episode of the Just A Game podcast hosted by Rob Kerr and discussed the first coach hiring process he was a part of back in 2012 as an assistant general manager. While Conroy admitted he didn’t have much of a say back then, he did mention the fact the team had an opportunity to interview Cooper but chose to go with Bob Hartley instead.
“I just started, so I didn’t really have a list of names,” Conroy said. “I wish I could take actual credit for Jon Cooper, but Al MacInnis and Kelly Chase were the ones who kind of said, ‘Hey, this Jon Cooper, you would be doing a disservice to yourself if you didn’t [interview him].’
“That was the name I got to bring to Jay [Feaster], Jon Cooper, and actually Steve Yzerman gave permission to talk to him, so we were going to talk to him, and he said we just need to wait until the AHL playoffs are over. Of course, that year, he went all the way to the AHL Finals and won. In the meantime, we had hired Bob [Hartley]. It got to be a little bit of [worrying] if Bob would go to Montreal. There was pressure.”
Hartley would coach four seasons with the Flames, missing the playoffs in three of those years. He won the Jack Adams for the 2014-15 season but was fired the very next year.
As for Cooper, he was named the head coach of the Lightning late in the 2012-13 season after the firing of Guy Boucher. The 55-year-old remains in that position today, making him the longest-tenured coach in the NHL. As the Lightning’s bench boss, he led them to three straight Stanley Cup Finals from 2020-2022, including back-t0-back Cup wins in 2020 and 2021.
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