'Come Take A Job'

Cap space can sometimes burn a hole in your pocket.

If you’re not disciplined, that is.

But here, at this time, for this team and its GM, mortgaging the future by handing out spots and doling out huge sums of cash ran contrary to the plan.

Instead, Craig Conroy offered this to his players following a quiet July 1 around the Scotiabank Saddledome:

“We've always said we have a plan and you have to stick to it,” the GM said. “You can't deviate just because other teams are signing players. For us, we still have our young players. And all these teams that have signed players have taken spots away from young players.

“You're going to see more opportunity for our guys with better competition. And if I'm a young player sitting at home, I'm thinking, 'Huh, they haven't done much. I'm going to work even harder this summer because I want to make that team.'

“I'm going to need Farabee, I'm going to need Frost, Zary, Matty Coronato. Guys like that that are going to come in and play better for us, and they're going to have to give us more offence, and they're going to have to take a step. And if they do, that's going to be the difference for us. Those are the guys with Klapka and Pospisil, those are what we need right now. Those are what we need to rise and play better.

“But they're going to get to play more, so that's going to give them that chance.”

Conroy was content dipping his toe into the turbulent, free-agent waters – but his Canada Day targets were not the max-term/top-dollar-type that often age poorly.

Rather, he was steadfast in identifying players in the 22- to 25-year-old range, while setting course on a new backup goaltender after Dan Vladar signed with the Philadelphia Flyers.

News on that front came around dinnertime when the Flames announced a one-year, one-way contract with 26-year-old Ivan Prosvetov. The 26-year-old will earn $950,000 next season, and is poised to battle AHL all-star Devin Cooley for the big-league job come training camp.

Otherwise – and outside of bringing back veteran Joel Hanley on a team-friendly two-year deal – keeping the internal competition high was Conroy’s top priority.

The Flames did have one piece of news that will help with that, as they announced the signing of Winnipeg native Nick Cicek to a one-year, two-way contract. Cicek is a 25-year-old left-shot blueliner that spent the 2024-25 season with the Mannheim Eagles of the DEL, but has 16 games of NHL experience – along with another 157 at the American League level.

He’ll push for a spot with fellow lefties Ilya Solovyov, Yan Kuznetsov, Etienne Morin, Joni Jurmo, Artyom Grushnikov and Jeremie Poirier all hungry to move the needle.

And with righties like Zayne Parekh and Hunter Brzustewicz knocking on the door, too, there’s certainly a logjam of youngsters keen to impress.

That’s but one example.

But the truth is, there’s opportunity everywhere.

It’s up to the players to reach out and take advantage.

“Come take a spot,” Conroy said. “Come take a job. Earn it. Take it.

“If there's an injury and you get a chance, never give that spot back. It's hard to say there's one spot here and one spot there; they're all open in my mind. But these veteran guys aren't going to give you anything, (so) we need these younger guys to push the veteran guys to be better.”