You can never come home again...?

Wow. I mean, we all heard the rumours about Conroy coming back to Calgary (they've been around for a solid year or so) but as with every rumour, I just tended to ignore them. I heard an interesting take on the idea of Conroy coming back last time the rumours surfaced (beginning of the season or so I think), and it came from none other than ex-Flames GM Craig Button, the man who aquired Conroy in the first place (in exchange for a still underrated Cory Stillman). I'm paraphrasing here, but he essentially said bringing Conroy back would be a mistake because players never come back the way you remember them. Conroy played a huge role on this team, and because of the 03-04 playoff run, we all remember him with a rosy glow. Conroy will be under intense and perhaps unfair scrutiny to help this team to a similar (read: better) performance again this year, especially considering this time he was shipped into a generally adept team, rather than the rebuilding years mess he was jetisoned into last time around.

There is another peculiar thing thats bothering me about this aquisition. It's not that we had to give up Lundmark and a couple of picks, Jamie just wasn't working out (as I aluded to in my Mid Term Report). Its that when Conroy's contract with the Flames expired, he (as I understand) was basically told that he was not worth the amount of pay he wanted. In the end he saw sunnier skies in L.A., got the big contract, and proceeded to have 1.5 mediocre seasons. Losing Iginla as a linemate probably didn't help Craiger's cause, but we are essentially resigning him for more money than we initially believed he was worth and giving up several draft picks to do it. And, at least statistically, he's a worse player than the one we wern't willing to resign.

If this sounds strange to you, it's because it is strange, or it's at least a poorly executed strategy.

Is Calgary a better team than we were yesterday because of this trade? Absolutely we are. But is paying $3 million for a guy who we plan on slotting in on the third line a smart long term plan, keeping in mind salary cap constraints? You tell me.

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