The Calgary Flames fired head coach Darryl Sutter on Monday.
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This news comes exactly three weeks after the loss that ended the Flames’ hopes of making the playoffs.
The Alberta team finished the season with a 37-28-17 record and 93 points, just two behind the Winnipeg Jets, the last team to qualify for the National League Western Conference. hockey (NHL).
Sutter had taken charge of the Flames during the 2020-2021 campaign. The following year, he led them to the Pacific Division title with 111 points. The team was then eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the playoffs.
“Darryl is a quick-witted man who knows hockey very well, first launched the president of hockey operations Don Maloney, during a press briefing. I believe in today’s world he is a tough and demanding coach. This type of trainer has a limited lifespan. Unfortunately, I believe his time with us was over.”
The 64-year-old is 102-63-28 behind the bench for the Flames, which he also coached from 2002-04 and 2005-06. In 2004, Sutter led the Flames to the Stanley Cup Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won in seven games.
In 21 years as an NHL coach with the Flames, Kings, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, Sutter boasts a 736-530-101 record. As a player, he took part in 406 matches.
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Maloney confirmed that his next mission is to find a new general manager. Brad Treliving held this position until April 17, but decided to resign after nine years.
“The logical path to take is to hire a general manager and let that manager hire a head coach,” Maloney said. We are moving forward with a new voice and a new vision.”
According to the former CEO of the Arizona Coyotes, the Flames will not need to start fresh next season.
“The players were frustrated with the season [2022-2023]. We firmly believed that our team was good enough to make the playoffs. Our formation is strong. Will we need to make any changes? Certainly. But we also have several young players who deserve their place in the team.
It’s not hard to read between the lines here and think of young Jakob Pelletier, who had to scramble to stand a chance under Sutter.
Stormy relations with players from here
Moreover, during the last campaign, Sutter attracted attention because of his unsound relationships with some. The cases of Quebecers Jonathan Huberdeau and Pelletier have been mentioned in particular in recent months. The first has also scored about sixty points less compared to 2021-2022.
“It was different. I knew what kind of coach he was going there. He is a coach who likes the defensive game. It is certain that there were small skirmishes during the year. I played on the right wing for two months, although I had never played there before. This is an adjustment that I had difficulty making. I had less ice time this year. There were different factors and I had to adjust,” he told the show. JiC Huberdeau a few days ago.
As for Pelletier, he had trouble convincing Sutter in his early days: the latter said after his first career NHL game that he “was 21 and had a long way to go”, in addition wondering what jersey number he was wearing. The Quebecer’s teammates were also not thrilled to see that the coach had been slow to confirm the player’s participation in his initial confrontation, complicating the task of his family who had to travel to see him in action.