The next level.

That is the aim for this season's edition of the Calgary Flames under new general manager Brad Treliving, who sat down on Friday with TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie.

For Treliving, success for the Flames this season will mean a step foward.

"Ultimately, how is that step foward determined?" asked Treliving rhetorically. "We go into this season with the goal of making the playoffs and I don't think that should ever change. Our goal, our mission as an organization is to make the playoffs and we need to see progress and progress can be measured many ways. We've got some internal indicators, but we need to see our team, collectively and each player, to make a step forward."

In his first year with the Flames and his maiden voyage as an NHL general manager, following 11 seasons as both the assistant GM of the now-Arizona Coyotes and GM of their AHL-affiliate San Antonio Rampage, Treliving, thus far, has enjoyed working under the team's iconoclastic president of hockey operations, Brian Burke.

"It's been everything I've envisioned it to be," said Treliving of the relationship. "Brian's my boss and a big part of the reason why I came to Calgary was having Brian there. I've seen it over the course of the summer now the ability to share ideas, the ability to go a short distance to get opinions on things. He's allowed me the ability to go out and make decisions and do what I feel is the necessary thing to do for the organization, but we're working lockstep. It's not something where an idea or thought goes by without me sharing it with Brian and vice versa, but it's been excellent. As I said, it's been everything I thought it would be. He's a guy with a great deal of experience. You don't have to ask him or push to share his opinion and it's been a marvelous working relationship."

Now almost five months into the job, Treliving sees the building blocks in place for the Flames.

"As an outsider last year looking at this team, you couldn't help but respect or notice how hard it worked, how hard it competed," said Treliving. "The message we're trying to have internally over the course of the summer is we have to not only maintain that, but we have to take that to another level.

"I think it's going to be an expectation of this team of some non-negotiable items and one is going to be how hard we work as an organization. Frankly, we can't afford not to when you look at where our team is in trying to grow our talent base. So that will be our number one and, number two, we need more. We need to improve."

Chief on the list of things to improve for the team is goaltending. The club's .899 save percentage as a team last season was third-worst in the NHL. To remedy that, Jonas Hiller was signed to a two-year deal worth $9 million.

Though excited about the arrival of Hiller, Treviling was quick to state that his signing was not reproof of the performance of the incumbent netminder, Karri Ramo.

"What I think what we've done is created competition in the net," explained Treliving. "The signing of Jonas in the summer was by no means an indictment of what Karri did. I think Karri, for coming back [to the NHL] had a strong season, especially late. But again, creating competition throughout the organization is only going to make us better. So that's a battle that will be interesting at the start of camp and going into the preseason and beyond. Ultimately, their performance will dictate who plays and how much."

The concept of performance dictating play isn't something that will die with his goalies. Of that, Treliving is adamant and it will determine whether or not some of his prized young players will make Bob Hartley's squad. At the top of that list sits Sam Bennett. Taken fourth-overall in this past summer's NHL Entry Draft, Bennett could leap right into the NHL, much like Sean Monahan did last season with the Flames. Taken sixth-overall in 2013, Monahan scored 20 goals in his rookie campaign.

For his part, Treliving is quick to point out that the circumstances of the pair aren't identical, but that Bennett certainly could be playing in the NHL this season.

"The quick answer is yes," Treliving said as to whether or not Bennett has a real shot.

"We spoke to our young guys the last couple of days and the message is, when you're 27th in the league, I don't think there are any spots that are locked up," explained Treliving. "Having said that, we've been honest and very open about it. I think the fact that Sean's rookie season is so fresh in everybody's mind in Calgary, there's some distinctive differences when you look at the two players. Obviously, age. There's almost a year's difference from where Sean was last time and where Sam is this year.

"I think Sam still has some development to do physically. So there are some areas [of concern and] we don't say those to deter Sam by any stretch and I know that he's singularly focused to come in and make this team and make the general manager's comments make a little silly."

The key for Treliving, though, remains whether or not the pro game is right for Bennett.

"I've said many times that there's lots of people who can play in the league," said Treliving. "Now, whether they can have success, whether they can help the team and, ultimately, whether it's the right thing for them - those are questions, ultimately, Sam will answer for us over the course of the next few weeks."

The same applies to Johnny Gaudreau. The winner of the 2014 Hobey Baker Award as a standout at Boston College, Gaudreau played in one game late last season for the Flames and scored in his appearance before going on to impress at the World Championship this past spring. As with Bennett, Treliving will not rush the 21-year-old.

"We're going to go through step one and step one for him is going through the rookie camp," said Treliving of Gaudreau. "We're not going to worry about who's going to make the team. People don't make [the team] or get cut this week. Ultimately, his steps and his progression and his performance over the course of the next several weeks are going to determine where he and several other guys start. You can't deny the skill or the intelligence. How that translates, we'll see here in the coming weeks."

Along with Bennett and Gaudreau, Treliving cites the likes of Markus Granlund and Corban Knight as "players on the cusp." While their potential may be tantalizing, Treliving is cautiously optimistic.

"What they'll do and when they're ready to play, whether it's October, November, January or next year - that's the exciting thing for us," said Treliving of his young charges. "We're not going to force-feed people into the line-up who are not ready to, but I think we've got a number of guys right now who will make this camp interesting."

If there's one thing that concerns Treliving about his team, it's the ability to score goals. The team was 23rd last season in goals scored with 209, but Treliving acknowledges that generating offence is something that every team in the league has to worry about.

"As much as you need to defend, you need to create," said Treliving. "That's one thing when I look at our line-up right now - and I think we're going to have some very interesting competition throughout the line-up - goal-scoring and the ability to create offence is something you can never have enough and we'll see where we're at in that area."

Calgary Flames training camp opens on Thursday.