[GranteedEV]

I'm a fan of Hartley the person, and I have mixed, but veering towards positive feelings on Bob Hartley the coach. I would truly have liked to see what Hartley's style of play could do with a stronger, faster, smarter, more experienced contending Flames roster. His style probably wasn't right for such a young team that needed more "forced" structure... the players that truly seemed to "get" Hartley's system were all holdovers from multiple previous regimes (Backlund and Giordano) which tells me that good players need to develop under multiple different coaches historically, it's never their first coach that takes them all the way but that doesn't mean it was the first coach's fault.

I would welcome Bob Back with open arms in the future, maybe once this same core group has matured under different coaches. 'Til then, best of luck Bob.