[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by gvitaly

Personally I'm just tired of blaming coaches for everything.

Since Sutter became a full time GM in 2006:
Playfair - 1 season, rookie coach. From all accounts everyone loved him, and he was a genius as an assistant. He still got out coached as the HC.

Keenan - 2 seasons. Apparently Iron Mike was going soft in his old age, and he wasn't hard enough on the players. Playfair was the one drawing up all the plays.

B. Sutter - 3 seasons. The team simply couldn't buy a goal, playing good defense but a pretty uninspired brand of hockey.

*Rebuild*
Hartley - 4 seasons. Won the Adams. Had the Flames giving up the blueline and a lot of grade A changes against in transition. He was hated by the vets. Made Kipper quit hockey, did a number on Sarich and Baertschi.

Gulutzan - Mr. D2D, he just couldn't get the team playing with any consistency, or get a complete buy in. The transition game was way too slow and uninspired.

*Back to relevancy*
Peters - 2 seasons. A great season winning the conference followed by a season of inconsistency. His past racist remarks had him out of the league.

Ward - 1 season. Again had the team playing slow, and uninspired hockey. Another good assistant that was getting out coached.

D. Sutter - 3 seasons. Won the Adams. Had the Flames playing great hockey for a season. Then goaltending and OTL/SOLs did him in. When the results weren't there half the players quit on him. He couldn't get much offense out of Huberdeau or Lindholm.

So were all those coaches terrible, or did the Flames players deserve some of the blame?

Huska - 2 seasons. His first year was a bit of a write-off. The team was still dealing with the fallout from Sutter being fired, and Tre moving on. It was built on a bunch of UFAs that were ready to move on from the Flames. They were still in the playoff race until they absolutely gutted their D core.

*Rebuild/Retool 2.0*
This season the Flames started at the cap floor, being close to $20M under the cap. This the most buy-in I've seen from a Flames locker room since 2004. The Flames should be a bottom feeder, but they defy expectations thanks to a hardworking brand of hockey and great goaltending. The Flames still need more offense, better defense, and improve on both the PK and PP. It's just hard to accomplish with both Hanley and Bahl in your top 4, and Backlund is having a down season. In fact the Flames don't have a player that is top 20 C, top 20 LW, top 20 RW, or a top 20D in the league. The only Star on this team is Wolf.

Finally, I was curious if you had a Huska replacement in mind. Which coach wants to coach Calgary, and is a clear upgrade on Huska?

Did any of those coaches ever get another head coaching gig in the NHL after they left Calgary. That's really says something.

I have no clue what coaches are available and who would want the job. I wanted to give Love a try believing he earned it. But the Flames didn't. He seems to be doing well as an assistant in Washington.