Roughly six weeks after firing Darryl Sutter, the Calgary Flames filled their head coach position with Ryan Huska. The official announcement came Monday morning from the team. Huska, 47, served as Sutter’s assistant coach, but his tenure with the Flames organization goes much further back. Now, he receives his first opportunity at a full-time head coaching job in the NHL.
Ryan Huska Named Calgary Flames Head Coach
Huska first became a coach at the junior level back in 2002, in the Western Hockey League (WHL). His entire career at the professional level came with the Flames organization, too. In 2014-15, he took the head coaching job with Calgary’s AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Flames. His success winning and developing players there resulted in a promotion to their NHL bench in 2018.
Craig Conroy made the hire official this week, as his first major move as the franchise’s new General Manager. Huska coached multiple current Flames players during their formative years in the AHL. That includes Rasmus Andersson, Andrew Mangiapane, and Oliver Kylington. He obviously also brings experience with the rest of their roster, given he’s been their assistant coach for multiple years now too.
What this Means for the Future
Anytime Darryl Sutter is the coach on the way out, it means a significant swing in coaching philosophies is incoming. Few coaches exist in Sutter’s “old school” category anymore these days. And in reality, they only prove effective for a window of time anywhere they coach. Whether an effect of changing times, or a symptom of the intense coaching style itself (or, more likely, some combination of the two), Sutter looked to have lost the room last season.
In his defence, Calgary underwent significant upheaval last summer which they didn’t have complete control over. Johnny Gaudreau left first, walking via free agency. Then, Matthew Tkachuk informed the team he planned to do the same one year later, unless they could facilitate a trade first. This put Calgary in a position where a deal had to get done, or else they watch their two biggest assets leave for free.
The roster shake-up seemed not to pair nicely with Sutter’s philosophy. In fact, the day after Sutter’s firing, Jonathan Huberdeau spoke candidly about his former coach and noted that things didn’t mesh between the two of them. Huberdeau, acquired in the Tkachuk deal alluded to above, had his worst offensive season in almost a decade under Sutter. After scoring 110 points the year prior, Calgary prays that a coaching change can help him and his teammates find their game again. Calgary should sit atop everyone’s lists of bounce-back candidates in 2023-24.
Main Photo: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
