The Flames dropped some pretty huge and mildly unexpected news this afternoon, firing head coach Glen Gulutzan, and assistants Dave Cameron and Paul Jerrard. The news comes following weeks of speculation regarding the coaching staff’s future and on the heels of a disappointing 2017-18 season.
The #Flames have relieved Glen Gulutzan, Dave Cameron and Paul Jerrard of their coaching duties. https://t.co/e11hRxsN0w
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) April 17, 2018
In two seasons with the #Flames, Gulutzan went 82-68-14.
— Aaron Vickers (@AAVickers) April 17, 2018
On this site, we have discussed at some length how the season went for the Flames and whether or not it made sense to move on from Gulutzan. Just this morning, Pat outlined how Gulutzan’s future weighed heavily on the off-season for the Flames. Earlier this month, Ryan detailed how the Flames managed difficult situations throughout the season and, in another story, why the staff might get fired.
Earlier this month, Flames GM Brad Treliving reflected on the 2017-18 season and, perhaps tellingly, did not give an unequivocal vote of confidence for the coaching staff.
During a dour and subdued press conference, Treliving mentioned that blame for the past season was not solely placed on the coaching staff. Essentially, Treliving said that though continuity was an important consideration, ultimately he decided that a move had to be made.
Treliving has repeated a few times, in some form or another: “We needed to do this to get to the level we expect.” #Flames
— Pat Steinberg (@Fan960Steinberg) April 17, 2018
It was confirmed during the conference that Gulutzan had signed a three-year contract and was indeed fired.
The press conference also confirmed that assistant coach Martin Gelinas, video coach Jamie Pringle, and goaltending coach Jordan Sigalet will all remain with the team.
Many names have begun to swirl around the Flames’ now-vacant spot, including Darryl Sutter and Bill Peters (who has until Friday to opt-out of his deal with the Carolina Hurricanes). Treliving did not indicate if another coach has been selected, though he has a “profile” of his next coach in mind.
Although, Treliving did note that he believed that having experience was “critical” for success in the league. Do with that information what you will.
So Treliving very much gives me the sense that Peters (or a coach still in the postseason) is the target, but that the next Flames coach is 100% going to have coached in the NHL before.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) April 17, 2018
With regards to the powerplay, Treliving noted that the onus falls mostly on the players and did not specifically mention any concerns with any of the coaching staff in particular, only that the team under-performed all season.
Repeatedly, Treliving indicated that he believed this decision signalled the “beginning” of the offseason in earnest. So with that, let the offseason begin.
Another possibility – Carlyle just might get canned if Anaheim goes down, especially in 4 straight.
Put me down for an emphatic “no.”
Interesting – I’m honestly curious as to what the objections are to Carlyle. One thing I like about him is that unlike Gulutzan, he definitely runs a short bench when needed.
He’s old school; his teams generally play a dump-and-chase style. I’m hoping for a coach that favours possession.
GG is a possession rockstar.
And he is available!
WW
I think we can agree that there are all kinds of problems with GG. Favouring controlled zone entry over dump-and-chase is not one of them though. That’s all I’m saying.
Loved Carlyle as a player. One of the best defense men of his era and probably would have had a couple of Norris trophies if he wasn’t out of sight in Winnipeg. Haven’t followed him too much as a coach, but you would think he could improve our team defense.
And playing around the same era as Paul Coffee, Dennis Potvin etc..
The proper term is “hard no”
hard no.
Patrick Roy please.
Would be amazing to have the greatest goalie to ever play be our coach, although not realistic. He is waiting to coach the Habs or if and when the great Nordiques are given anpther shot (which they should get as places like Atlanta, Winnipeg, Minnesota got second chances)
I’m sorry, but Brodeur is the greatest goalie to ever play, and then it’s a tie between Roy and Hasek
Don’t you remember what happened with Roy and the Habs? He pointed to the owner and said, “I have just played my last game here”. I’m thinking that he doesn’t want to coach there either lol
He’ll probably be their next coach once they got moved to Quebec.
I’m happier about Dave Cameron being fired than anything else
Meh. Whatever. Still not gonna fix the bottom six or the d or the goaltending. I’m more interested in who the special teams coaches will be and if the head coach gets to pick them. Also interested in a Brouwer buyout, getting rid of Sam and Hathaway and how we’re going to plug the Versteeg/Stajan holes without ruining developing players with too much responsibility too soon.
But at least Tre went full ass and fired everyone. Now we need someone who’ll NOT listen to the players whine when the whip is cracked.
So long , Gully, thanks for the decent 5v5. But please, i’ ve believed all this time you were told to play Brouwer, and if you could confirm that now that you’re fired it’d be great!!! If that wasn’t the case..huh.
They were awful 5v5. Don’t get confused with fake news and a defense worse than it was during the Hartley years.
And the Bandwagon jumper of the year award goes to…
Thats 1 less thing to cross off the checklist:
– fire coaches- CHECK
-find 3 RW
-find 4 defenceman
-fire goalie coach
-fire ahl coach
-find top line C
-trade Bennett for Yakupov
– rip up Lazars extension
-rip up stones extension
-rip up brouwers extension
-recoup some draft picks so flames can have a pick in the top 100
-see if any takers for leagues worst +-hamonic
-find tough gritty players
-find a tough guy who can actually win a fight
-find #1 and #2 goalie
-build new arena
How’s the checklist looking for your POS team? Tasks 1 and 2 are done (MickyD and arena).
In other news, there isn’t a rock to be found in the city of Edmonton! Good luck finding an unshattered pane of glass anywhere either.
Again… ?
I’d take Stone, Brouwer and Lazar’s extensions over trading Larson for Hall and writing Milan Lucic a fat cheque. Don’t throw stones when you’re in the glass house homie!
Thats 1 less thing to cross off the checklist: (re-write…change of coach…lol)
– fire coaches- CHECK (absolutely)
-find 3 RW (Coaches fired = need 1 RW and proper deployment)
-find 4 defenceman (Coaches fired = fixed)
-fire goalie coach (Head Coach fired = fixed if allowed)
-fire ahl coach (Head Coach fired = give AHL coach a better system to use = fixed)
-find top line C (Monny healthy = fixed)
-trade Bennett for Yakupov (hahahaha – 1st pick no heart/4th pick at least heart = hahahahaha)
– rip up Lazars extension (Coaches fired – 13th-14th-15th forward = fixed)
-rip up stones extension (Coaches fired – that’s all I got = fixed)
-rip up brouwers extension (coaches fired – see Lazar = fixed)
-recoup some draft picks so flames can have a pick in the top 100 (We’re not the Oilers lol)
-see if any takers for leagues worst +-hamonic (Coaches fired = fixed)
-find tough gritty players (Everybody is looking for them – apparently Lucic is available lol)
-find a tough guy who can actually win a fight (we demoted the best fighter in the league for a reason)
-find #1 and #2 goalie (Coaches fired – hopefully means goalie coach fired = fixed)
-build new arena (Coaches fired = hahahaha j/k. New arenas guarantee wins, right Coilers?)
So a new coach can and will fix some glaring issues. Hopefully now BT can get a real sense here…
If Trelivings press conference after this decision doesn’t send off red blinkers in front of your eyes then I don’t know what will.
It’s blatantly obvious that when it comes to tinge decisions that matter Tre unfortunately fails to execute correctly. He basically held a press conference to say I’m firing the coach but it’s not just his fault it’s the players also but I’m not going to tell you what specific reasoning I used to come to my decision. It’s politics not facts. It’s hindsight and nothing more.
First of all Tre you hired this coach two years ago after firing Hartley for what exactly? Then you go out and bank all your chips on what you always do Tre “blind faith and hope” nothing in GG’s resume at that time said he’s the man for the job yet what does your arrogance and over confidence do? You hire him anyway. Then the same off season you ridiculously overpay Brouwer yet again “blind faith” not facts and yet again you pooped in your underwear.
Say what you want Tre but reality is you are the problem. You make the decisions and you simply don’t have the moxie for it. At least in my opinion I can look at your past and what you have done as the indicator as to what you are going to do.
-You should have pushed Sam in a top 6 role.
-You should never have given up a whole years worth of draft pics to make up for the evident and lacking depth on this team.
Seriously! Goodbye Treliving
Tre failing to execute correctly? He’s saying it is everyone’s fault to be professional. He is showing GG courtesy. No GM is gonna fire a coach and then blatantly disrespect them in the media. Tre may not be perfect but he isn’t a delusional idiot like you paint him out to be.
You remind me of reading reviews on a product. People will always spit out everything that went wrong with the product, but never mention the good things. Just a one track mind. Show me a GM that actually hit a home run with every transaction they made. He’s a new GM and will make mistakes, but I believe he’s smart enough to learn from them. He took a few risks, one that’s obvious is hiring GG. However, if you read the reasoning after he hired GG, it was because he interviewed many former people that worked with GG and they all had nothing but glowing reports about him. He did his due diligence of checking out references about him and they all came back positive. Obviously after 2 yrs it became apparent he’s not the right fit for this team and Tre pulled the plug on him. He didn’t wait and as a matter of fact, the panel on TSN even said teams are already calling upon GG. Say what you want about Tre, but he’s also done a lot of positive moves that you conveniently left out or don’t even know about and I fully trust him going forward
And now you feel the need to personally defend someone “Tre” who has no record of winning.
Be serious and see how much of what he hasn’t done is luck.
– Dougie trade never happens if Boston does not choose to move that direction.
-Mony was drafted by us not his doing.
-he signed Raymond and Hiller and a trio of other players
-he paid Bouma too much nd made Bouma the third buy out of his tenure
-he traded for Eddie Lack are you kidding me?
-he traded for Hamonic and gave up a whole years worth of draft pics to add players
-he over paid Frolik
-he over paid Brouwer
-he hire a coach in GG with no winning record or reputation that was soft and gutless.
-he didn’t fire the assistant coaches last year which could have been the difference this year.
-he drafted Hunter Smith in the second round!!
-He signed Glass and bought out Bouma
-he signed the oldest man to ever play an NHL game and he was useless
– he drafted Sam Bennett “although” I still think Bennett has great upside
– he signed Michael Stone for $3.5 Million!
– Kept Anderson in the AHL to let Bartkowski earn a salary
– He has never addressed our long term goal tending need effectively.
What he did get he lucked out on or we already had such as Johnny Hockey. Giordano, Mony Backlund, Chucky we drafted but was no brainer,
Where exactly has even one of his transactions with exception of Dougie make the difference on this team? Who has he signed? Or hired who helped move this team forward? You forget we are top heavy? Doesn’t that tell you his acquisitions suck?
He’s not the superstar GM you think and if he was we would be in the play offs. If he was we would have draft pics and if he was we wouldn’t have to fire coaches every other year.
He’s just another guy throwing crap at a wall and hope some sticks.
Give me the positives you mention of? Where exactly are those so called positives?
If Vegas sweeps LA, will Darryl Sutter be available?
Humor?
Nope just exhausted lmao. Totally forgot it’s John Stevens now.
Darryl Sutter will be available regardless of the outcome of the Vegas/LA series!
Right. My bad totally forgot.
Sutter was fired from LA last season.
Regardless who they hire, they better be given a Mike Babcock kind of contract the gives them 6-8 years to make it clear to the players that the coach will not be fired anytime soon.
I really hope hunter gets a chance Or sutter
The last 2 coaches were fired early. What makes you think that the owners are willing to spend money on a long term coaching contract?
Marc Crawford is a strong candidate.
The Calgary leadership has suggested its eventual hire will have past NHL experience, so Crawford would fit the mold. The 55-year-old has 15 years of NHL head coaching experience and a Stanley Cup on his resume. He worked with Brian Burke previously in Vancouver. Calgary has a history of hiring coaches who were previously there.
Mike Keenan, Glen Gulutzan.
He would be a bad hire. Didn’t do anything in OTT this year.
NO WAY! Gretzky padded his point totals hugely by playing against this joker. Had USSR players been available to the NHL back then, Crawford would never have made the NHL as a player and possibly not even as a coach.
For Flame fans who became distracted or even obsessed with Gully’s slick locks, they will find the same hairy sideshow with Crawford and even with Billy Peters and the hairstyle he has sported since he was a ’70s teenager.
If Washington misses the playoffs, anyone want Trotz?
Have you seen Washington play in the Playoffs? and they have OV…
So Flames canned a motivational coach for failing. Now canned a systems coach for failing. Now can we get a motivational coach with a system?!!? Tippett anyone?!!!!
Sutter as head coach with Tippett and Ruff as assistants. Flames should go all in here!!
Ruff will most likely get the promotion from NYR to their HC, Why else wouldn’t they let him go with AV?
Tippett? Heaven forbid. Never forget how bad his last 4 years in Phoenix were. Just plays old lazy guys or really lazy euros
I literally can’t think of a worse candidate than Tippett.
Dito
I once hiked Mt Yamnuska. Therefore I am applying for the head coach job. Apparently Calgary has hit an all time low…. they will
hire thee most important position on a team based on his hiking abilities lmfao I love this team!
One Alberta head coach gone, anther to be announced shortly!
I got real sweaty on Nose Hill. I too will apply for the job
count me among those who would be OK with Daryl Sutter
Given the options, I’m OK with that too. I wasn’t too fond of the idea initially, but I’ve come around.
D Sutter took the Flames deeper into the playoffs than any Flames coach except for Terry Crisp. The current period of mediocrity began with D Sutter being replaced behind the bench with Jim Playfair.
That was a boneheaded decision to let Sutter go… who made that decision?
Sutter himself as GM? Anyway I hated the decision at the time and still hate it. Never understood it, though if it truly was Sutter’s decision maybe it was just a personal workload or travel thing.
Sutter learned it is hard to be the coach and the GM I’m sure. GM – Player and Coach – Player relationships can be very different and I’m sure it is hard to manage both. Once he decided he couldn’t do both, GM Is more appealing because if you become just the coach then you are stuck underneath a new GM who controls your job, not ideal
@ doctor – the late great Badger Bob took us to the finals too…
Mad respect for Badger Bob from Oil Town.
I as well, although Sheldon Keefe or Todd Nelson have had great success in the minors if we go down the unproven path again
Flames need an experienced NHL not a minor league success. D Sutter fits the bill…doesn’t let players lollygag around the ice. Bob Hartley not in the running??? 🙂
I hate to see anyone lose there job. Why did it take BT so long to fire GG? Same reason he took a long time to fire BH? WE all know the teams problems go beyond the coaching. It was obvious how bad the coaching was in December yet BT wasted a season on procrastinating and ego. MY question is …..is BT the man for the job? THE coyotes are and we’re bad when BT was there….losing is losing. If he hires Willie Desjardins, I’ll get sick. Today’s move smells like a ownership move not GM move. I’m losing confidence in BT big time.
BT’s track record as Flames’ GM has been mediocre at best.
How is it the coach is fired but the guy who hand picked him still has a job. Especially when the GM I thought failed to address the limitations of the roster to begin with. This just shows BT is just a front for Burke and King. The yes man.
GM’s will typically get at least 2 coaching hires before they get fired.
Choose well young BP heir, choose well.
I’d agree with you, but then we’d both be wrong.
BT is obviously a great salesman. His record of signing players to contracts that are less than they would get on the open market is very consistent. Experience in industry tells me that he is selling himself up the food-chain just as aggressively as he sells signing team friendly contracts to players. It is difficult to determine how many mistakes a guy like this is allowed but he is definitely at the end of his string.
Yes the coaching is only the tip of the iceberg with myriad of challenges facing this team. Still many holes to fill if this team wants to be competitive come next year. After watching the past week of playoff hockey, sorry to say but the Flames are nowhere close with the current roster. I just think that there is not enough players in this team that hate losing. The biggest obstacle the new coaches will be facing come next season is repairing the shattered confidence this team displayed towards the end of the season.
I think we will be surprised with what a coach that understands roles, line combinations, player management, and taking away time and space from the opposition can do with the guys we have.
Shore, Lazar, Hath are a good foundation for a fourth line. Backs line is the third (without Tkachuk – may I suggest Klimchuk, he suits the role). That leaves Janks, Bennett and Tkachuk on line 2, leave the first line intact. We have 7 solid defensemen if you play a better system.
Let Sig go and I am sure Smith will be fine.
By the way, Janks, Bennett and Byng played 13 minutes together during the season (more than I thought). Scored 2 times for a 8.91 GF/60. That would be near the top in the NHL. They allowed just 1 against.
“talking away time and space”. Exactly! I hope the boys watched the Vegas LA series and see what team speed can do for both regular play and PK.
BT good luck in 10 days at the Draft …The Rebuild is still at work, i hope this open up more fans eyes and see we r not a Cup team next year too,
we have holes from the top of the Staff and down to the Ahl Staff and Both Roster, This all can’t be fix by next season…
Peters, although he plays a more up-tempo system may only be a mild upgrade. I can’t see them going down the Sutter road again…think that would be going backwards, despite his 2 Cups.
Just another thought. It’s interesting that Gelinas has survived 2 head coach firings. I’m curious about his career path. I like him, hope he gets a shot somewhere, someday.
Just what has Gelinas being doing for the Flames? I googled that and couldn’t find anything!
I’m guessing some loyalty thing from the owners. ‘04 and all that.
Good point … I don’t recall reading what he does day to day.
Call W5!
THat game where Lucic punched Smith 3 times and Gio and Hamilton did nothing is all you end to know about the type of players we have. I hope that BT has a planned in place to move out the players that don’t give a crap starting with Hamilton. He’s the logical choice to improve our forward group. Trade while his stock is high.
Hamilton is sitting here, like whyyyy did I leave Boston????