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Originally Posted by Coach
It is? Is there a source for this thought? My understanding is that he wasn't available when Peters was hired, so not considered. And then yeah when Peters got the boot, they could have brought him in, and then again could have when giving Ward the full duty before firing him months later. We needed Darryl right after Gulutzan threw his stick like an idiot.
I don't think this is necessarily true. I think it's possible neither Darryl or Tre WANTED to trade Bennett. It was a tough position to be in to roll the dice again on him next season, or try and get something valuable for him while they could. We could all project that Sam could do well with Sutter, but it was a big risk to lose out on his return.
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Friedman has said the Flames approached Sutter when Peters was dismissed. I suspect the Flames gaged Sutter's interest, and probably preferred Sutter to Ward (who wouldn't?), but Sutter wasn't ready to commit at that time. I don't think Ward was ever the preferred choice, even when he did get the gig in the offseason. He was hired with a two year term and was probably close to the lowest paid HC in the league, if not the most. In other words, if things didn't go well, it wasn't going to be that hard to move on. I think the Flames maintained contact with Sutter and probably let him know the job was his, if he wanted it.
Sure, we could have used Sutter after Gulutzan threw his stick, but your premise seems to be that it was the Flames decision, and not Sutter's as though Daryll was just sitting around waiting for the Flames to hire him. I doubt very much that was the case. Pinning the timing of the hiring solely on the Flames is not realistic. Sutter had as much control as to when, or again if, he wanted to return to coaching. Maybe he wasn't ready in November 2019 to commit. Being a HC in the NHL is a demanding job. He probably works around the clock at the sacrifice of being with his family. Then the pandemic hit which was probably the worst time, perhaps ever, to be a coach or player in the NHL. We read similar criticism's about Treliving/the Flames on players as well. People like to look at a player, like Tyler Toffoli, and say 'Wow, he had a good year. Treliving really blew it by not signing him.' Well, is there any indication Toffoli would have signed in Calgary? Did I miss the report where Toffoli was left at the alter by the Flames and had to take the Habs as his second choice? Point being, the Flames don't get to simply pick and choose who they want working for them. The closest they get to that is the draft and as Adam Fox has proved, even that isn't a sure thing.
I do agree that Treliving, nor Sutter, may not have wanted to trade Bennett. The fact it took Treliving the amount of time it did to move him speaks to that. I suspect he was hopeful Bennett was going to find his stride here. At the end of the day, it was best for the player, and probably the organization to move on. Clearly Bennett wanted a shot in a top 6 role elsewhere and he wasn't going to beat out Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Mangiapanne, Lindholm, Monahan, Backlund. I would also take Coleman over Bennett. As it turns out, this years Flames forward group is better than it was at the start of last season, at least in my mind.
If Bennett was still a Flame today, he is probably competing with Dube for a LW role on the 3-LW spot, which I'm not sure if he could have won that spot.