Flames players wanted a change from Sutter and are receiving their wish
Ryan Huska moving from an assistant coach to the bench boss role with the Calgary Flames was the obvious — and most likely — scenario when Darryl Sutter was fired last month.
Do not for a moment think that Huska has not paid his dues and earned the opportunity before receiving the promotion, which is expected to be announced Monday.
Huska has spent the past 21 seasons learning his craft, including the last five as an assistant in Calgary.
Once his playing days concluded — which includes winning three Memorial Cup titles with the Kamloops Blazers in the early 1990s, two of those with Jarome Iginla as a team-mate, and five years in the minors — Huska grabbed a whistle in 2002-03 as an assistant with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL
After five years in that role, he took the head coaching job in Kelowna for another seven years followed by coaching the Flames’ AHL affiliates for seasons before moving to an assistant’s post in Calgary. He has worked through the ranks. (It will come as no shock if Mitch Love is promoted from the AHL Wranglers as as assistant.)
The Flames are hoping that experience is key to both ending the revolving door to the coach’s office as well as another disappointing trend.
Promoting an assistant to the head coaching job in Calgary has historically been a bust.
Greg Gilbert took the reins late in the 2000-01 season when Don Hay was fired before finishing his first season. The Flames had their famous 13-2-2-2 start to the season the next year before fading down the stretch, struggled mightily in 2002-03 before Gilbert was fired within a couple of weeks after the club decided to trade skilled center Marc Savard in yet another soap opera.
Jim Playfair was given the job back for the 2006-07 season after Darryl Sutter decided in his first stint in Calgary to concentrate more on the general manager’s post. Playfair lasted one season, and it did not help his cause that players saw him as being too similar to Sutter, even in some of his mannerisms.
Geoff Ward was also promoted early in the 2019-20 season when Bill Peters was forced to resign when it came to light he spewed racial profanities at Akim Aliu years earlier (on top of allegations he kicked and punched a pair of players while coaching the Carolina Hurricanes). Ward guided the Flames to a playoff berth in the pandemic-shortened campaign, but after an 11-11-1 start the next season, was let go to re-hire Sutter.
There are no guarantees that Huska will end Calgary’s insane coaching carousel. (Since Don Hay was hired to kick off the 2000-01 season, the Flames have fired their coach 11 times. Going further back, only two coaches since the team moved to Calgary in 1980 have enjoyed a stint beyond three seasons, Bob Johnson and Bob Hartley - and Hartley was gassed after season number four.)
Working in his favor Huska possesses a litany of experience watching how a variety of coaching styles have fared.
Reportedly, the players made no bones about being through with Sutter’s acerbic approach. The onus is just as much on them to make it work with a man who has been the good cop the past few years.
