What teams are currently in the hunt for a new head coach?
There are only 31 teams in the league - soon to be 32. How many are looking to hire a new coach?
How many of these teams that are looking for a new coach are poised to compete now? How many of these teams are in their actual 'window of contention'? It isn't that the Flames are a perfect team and that the only reason that they haven't won a cup is due to poor coaching - this team has definite holes to be sure. However, out of all the rumoured teams out there to be looking for a head coach, I doubt there are many - if any - that have the following:
1) Commitment to spend to the cap
2) A very solid, and with the exception of Giordano, a YOUNG core
3) Solid defence
4) A history of 5+ years of drafting well (go ahead and compare throughout the league)
Sure, there are definite question marks. However, this isn't a rebuilding team, nor is it a 'soon to be rebuilding team'. This is a team that is a winning team now, and that with a few moves, could become one of the best teams in the league in short order.
So, unless a particular coach has a certain personal disdain for the Calgary Flames, the City of Calgary, or Canada in general, I don't see why the Flames shouldn't be considered one of the most popular landing spots for coaches if indeed a change is going to be made.
Sure, there are going to be some big moves this upcoming off-season - in my view, the most important being that of T.J. Brodie, but the Flames are a pretty damn good team on paper, are less than 1 calendar year past from being the 2nd best regular season team in the league, and SHOULD be a team that is still rising and in that compete window.
Plus, contrary to popular belief, the Flames aren't cheap on coaches. Maybe they were back in the 1990's and early 2000's, but I don't think they have been since Darryl Sutter came in, grabbed this organization by the scruff of the neck and forced them into game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. They just absolutely suck at picking coaches, IMO.
I expect Treliving to hire a more experienced head coach. This team is one that should be competing for the cup, not competing for a wildcard spot. I am sure that he will hire someone who is experienced with a more proven track record.
Remember one thing that was said when Treliving fired Hartley - he didn't blast Hartley really for being 'too tough', but rather that he wants the Calgary Flames to play a certain way and that he felt a lot of the wins were 'lucky'. Watching the Flames under Ward, I felt that this team was often 'lucky' to win at times as well too often. The advanced metrics that Treliving alluded to at the time seemed like the 'official' basis on why he fired Hartley, and the same can be said of Ward, even though those two iterations are night and day different in regards to top end talent and on the depth spectrum. I don't see why his approach would change now.
The only way Ward stays is if he has a good argument as to why the performance of the team was due to factors such as not being able to change the system fully after taking over mid-way through the season, and not having the appropriate types of players needed to really play said system - things like that.
With the available coaching hires, coupled with how attractive the situation is in Calgary as compared to other possible options helps me to conclude that Calgary will probably be changing coaches this off-season.
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