In a make-or-break year for Brad Treliving, the Flames' general manager made some tough decisions to move his team forward.

It started with the firing of head coach Bob Hartley in early May of last year. Hartley failed to make the post-season in 2016 just one year after guiding the Flames to a surprise second round appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It would have been easy for Treliving to justify keeping Hartley behind the bench; as mentioned the Flames were just one year removed from the playoffs. Hartley has a Stanley Cup championship on his resume and, perhaps most importantly, had another year left on his deal.

But instead, citing philosophical differences, Treliving let Hartley go and replaced him with Glen Gulutzan. A head coach with some NHL experience but not much, he had never made the post-season and “Gulutzan” was not the most well known name on the market at the time to say the least. It was a risk for Treliving, who was entering the final year of his own deal.

“You try to do the right thing and the right thing, a lot of times, isn’t the easy thing.” said Treliving. “So that’s what you keep doing, you keep pounding away at it and see if you can get to the finish line the right way. But we enjoy it. We enjoy the job...like I said, it comes down to people. If you can get the right people marching in the right direction you’re going to have some success.”

The Flames' success took a little longer to come to fruition with a 5-10-1 start to the 2016-17 season. It could not have been a very comfortable position for Treliving to be in. Flames fans were calling for Gulutzan’s head with less than a quarter of the season gone. If they had gotten their wish or if the Flames failed to recover from their disastrous start there’s a good chance Treliving’s recently signed extension may have been fed to the shredder.

Treliving has also made a lot of headway with the Flames' prospect pool, again, with tough decisions. He gave the Stockton Heat, their minor league affiliate, a facelift. Clearly not satisfied with the quality of players available to the main club, the former AHL defenceman declined to tender nine qualifying offers last summer - most of which were for minor league players. And, like their parent club, the Heat made the AHL post-season after falling well short the previous year.

“We’re in a good position (with prospects). Now we have to make it better and so that’s the task at hand.” Treliving relayed. “The job is to make decisions. A lot of those are difficult and you do your homework, you do your work and then you make your calls.”

The Flames GM has plenty of calls to make this off-season with the expansion and Entry Drafts to prepare for. There are holes to fill on the Flames roster which includes two expiring goalie contracts and a team of people around him whose futures need to be addressed first and foremost.

“To get a team on the ice you have to get a team off the ice." Said Treliving. "Whether it's our scouting staff, management staff, the people behind the scenes, guys that are in the field, training staff, they are as critical to the team having success as anyone. If it's my stamp it's the people that are here. That’s the way we do business and hopefully that’s going to lead us to success”