[News] Trent Cull named new Wranglers bench boss

[Blaster86]

He was the same up until his promotion to the Canucks.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Just seems a bit disappointing given the lip service given regarding young, fresh and innovative thinking in hockey operations, and here's a guy who's bounced around the circuit forever to middling success.

[Meers]

So much for prospect development.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Ped

Looks like there was some issues back in Utica with how he was developing prospects.


https://theathletic.com/774416/2019/...t-this-season/

• Lukas Jasek’s deployment is a little all over the place, but the Czech rookie is playing more than half of his minutes at 5-on-5 in the middle six. Should Jasek be playing more often than that? As of writing this, Jasek is seventh on the Comets in 5-on-5 points with 16 points and 2.14 5-on-5 points per hour. Another question I can’t help but ask is why Jasek is good enough to play in the Comets top six in about a third of their games, and then sit for a fifth of them? It’s clear that Jasek helps the Comets win hockey games, so if they’re trying to ice a winning lineup, he should probably be in it period.
• What good is this deployment serving Jonah Gadjovich’s development? Gadjovich has played over 40 percent of his matches on the fourth line, most nights with some combination Vincent Arseneau, Brendan Woods and Tony Cameranesi. This is a line with players who wouldn’t be premier talents in the ECHL. The 8.66 estimated 5-on-5 minutes a game that Gadjovich is playing reflects that. Gadjovich has admitted that the step from the OHL to the AHL was more significant than he anticipated. Fair enough. The coaching staff seems to be taking notice. So why is he still there? Would Gadjovich’s development not be better served by playing regularly in the ECHL or even the OHL? It’s hard to imagine it’s worse than playing about eight minutes of hockey with face-punchers every fourth or fifth day. That’s what Gadjovich is doing now.
• It’s Petrus Palmu’s place on that graph that is most frustrating of all. Talk about a wasted opportunity. The Canucks did everything they could to bring Palmu over from the Finnish Liiga (statistically shown to be a more challenging league than the AHL) to the AHL with an entry-level contract and then had to watch him miss close to 60 percent of the games he was available for before returning to Finland. Palmu’s commentary after the fact doesn’t exactly rebuild the shattered confidence many were left with watching this relationship end, for now, so unceremoniously.

I suppose he could have improved since then. The argument could be made none of those guys were anything useful, but that might have had something to do with development.

In most cases - its just guy's reaching their development limit and playing the level in the line-up they would play in the NHL. Gadjovich has gotten some NHL time with the Sharks of late and he's been basically a 4th line grinder for them.

The other guys were sixth round picks. Kerins as a 6th round Flames pick who put up points in junior spent like 70% of the season in the ECHL. Sometimes you just max out your skills.

[PeteMoss]

Cull was instrumental in a family member of mine get drafted in junior (and then he left for the AHL) so based on that interaction - I will assume he's has an astute eye for talent.

[shutout]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

Just seems a bit disappointing given the lip service given regarding young, fresh and innovative thinking in hockey operations, and here's a guy who's bounced around the circuit forever to middling success.

I prefer going with the up and coming juniour coach for my farm team than someone who is a bit of a retread. Use the farm level to also develop future coaches.

[activeStick]

Originally Posted by shutout

I prefer going with the up and coming juniour coach for my farm team than someone who is a bit of a retread. Use the farm level to also develop future coaches.

And I think that's what the Flames did before under Treliving. Huska, Love, were all up and coming coaches that they developed on the farm.

[Mitch]

I don't know much about Cull, but lack of AHL prospect development in Utica while he was there was likely also impacted by poor depth of prospects for the Canucks. Nucks fans won't admit that, so its easy to blame the coach. It's also hard to tell what the organizational mandate is for their AHL team - if ownership told Cull to prioritize winning over prospect development, he doesn't really have a choice. Some teams are still in that sphere, similar to Calgary prior to Pascall coming on board.

Based on the interviews, I'm willing to give the guy a chance - he has said all the right things.

[gvitaly]

The key priority is as always prospect development. I guess we'll find out in a couple of years if it was a good hire.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Meers

So much for prospect development.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that prospect development will continue to be a priority for the Flames.

[dustygoon]

Agree with some posters here. We should be developing players and coaches at the same time. Would have preferred another junior coach get a shot.

[mile]

[Ped]

Originally Posted by Mitch

I don't know much about Cull, but lack of AHL prospect development in Utica while he was there was likely also impacted by poor depth of prospects for the Canucks. Nucks fans won't admit that, so its easy to blame the coach. It's also hard to tell what the organizational mandate is for their AHL team - if ownership told Cull to prioritize winning over prospect development, he doesn't really have a choice. Some teams are still in that sphere, similar to Calgary prior to Pascall coming on board.

Based on the interviews, I'm willing to give the guy a chance - he has said all the right things.

From reading the article, the issue wasn't so much that the prospects didn't develop, as they didn't appear to be given a proper chance to develop. Obviously it's impossible to say now, and I've never seen a Utica game, so I'm not expert. But I think there is a difference between the two. If you don't give a prospect ice time in a development league, then they're never going to actually develop. Maybe they wouldn't have anyway, but there's no way to really know for sure.

[dino7c]

What amazing Canucks prospect did he not develop? Remember these are the clowns that drafted what's his name over Tkachuk

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by Ped

From reading the article, the issue wasn't so much that the prospects didn't develop, as they didn't appear to be given a proper chance to develop. Obviously it's impossible to say now, and I've never seen a Utica game, so I'm not expert. But I think there is a difference between the two. If you don't give a prospect ice time in a development league, then they're never going to actually develop. Maybe they wouldn't have anyway, but there's no way to really know for sure.

Yeah I'm not convinced this is the case. If there is an instance of a player with draft pedigree (or post-draft pedigree) that went to Utica during Cull's time and faltered due to unmerited lack of ice-time, then maybe there's some smoke. I'd hazard a guess and say you would struggle to come up with a name.

Taking a look at Utica's rosters during Cull's time, it's pretty clear they lacked any strong talent.

The flames are very clearly prioritizing prospect development under Conroy, Cull has clearly stated that developing players for the flames is his priority, so I really just think this is a useless thing to worry about. The young guys are going to get their opportunity.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Trents rule the world.

-Beyonce

[bdubbs]

TrentCrimmIndependent
TrentC
TrentCull?

[Reggie Dunlop]

Well, I guess with the big boss down the hall instead of making periodic flights out to wherever the farm is, will have Cull under scrutiny. So he gets the benefit of the doubt.

[868904]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that prospect development will continue to be a priority for the Flames.

If they can find a coach who is really good at developing prospects, he's probably worth more than an NHL head coach.

I'd pay NHL head coach dollars to keep a coach at the AHL level if he's really good at developing prospects. Not sure if there are any coaches who would go for that though, probably guys who have had a cup of coffee in the NHL and wasn't cut out for it.

[Enoch Root]

I think too much credit for player development is being given to the coach here - most player development comes from the assistant coaches - the head coach is busy managing the roster.