Flames fire Geoff Ward, hire Darryl Sutter, signs 3 year deal

[DeluxeMoustache]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

Hell, even Gaudreau thinks so.

https://nationalpost.com/sports/hock...ers-tough-love

The same Gaudreau that ‘got Hartley fired’ then attended his camp as a guest counsellor?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Is Darryl in the building yet?

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Soliak

Very exciting news.

Tkachuk under Sutter is going to be something else. I could see Chucky being made captain at some point in the near future and our identity being forged.

Looking at this roster, I think the only viable captain if you were to replace Gio is Tanev.

I don’t believe we have a single forward worthy of the letter at this point in time.

[troutman]

I don't trust Treliving to be involved with the restructuring of this team. I feel like he has really over-estimated the quality of this team for too long. Let his last move be the hiring of Sutter. Bring in a new GM like Lombardi.

[Infinit47]

Originally Posted by troutman

I don't trust Treliving to be involved with the restructuring of this team. I feel like he has really over-estimated the quality of this team for too long. Let his last move be the hiring of Sutter. Bring in a new GM like Lombardi.

Maybe this has been confirmed one way or another and I missed it, but how can Sutter possibly be a Trelieving hire? If that's the case then Sutter would have been hired before the season started.

We all knew what Ward was after last year. He got the results you would expect this year.

Sutter has to be an ownership hire. Which would mean Trelieving's days are numbered. There could even be a GM search right now.

[SportsJunky]

Originally Posted by Infinit47

Maybe this has been confirmed one way or another and I missed it, but how can Sutter possibly be a Trelieving hire? If that's the case then Sutter would have been hired before the season started.

We all knew what Ward was after last year. He got the results you would expect this year.

Sutter has to be an ownership hire. Which would mean Trelieving's days are numbered. There could even be a GM search right now.

That's a leap.
Also, Friedman said that he believes this was Treliving's decision alone. No ownership meddling.

[kukkudo]

Originally Posted by troutman

I don't trust Treliving to be involved with the restructuring of this team. I feel like he has really over-estimated the quality of this team for too long. Let his last move be the hiring of Sutter. Bring in a new GM like Lombardi.

I honestly think Lombardi will come on board in the off-season as President/GM of the Flames. Flames clean house at the top and all assistant coaches.

[Red]

Originally Posted by Infinit47

Maybe this has been confirmed one way or another and I missed it, but how can Sutter possibly be a Trelieving hire? If that's the case then Sutter would have been hired before the season started.

We all knew what Ward was after last year. He got the results you would expect this year.

Sutter has to be an ownership hire. Which would mean Trelieving's days are numbered. There could even be a GM search right now.

When you put the 2 and 2 together, it's clear it wasn't a Treliving call. As you said, he would have hired him prior to the start of the season. And the notion that Sutter maybe didn't want the job doesn't add up either. Sutter wouldn't have rejected the opportunity then and be all over it now all of a sudden. Especially where the team is at the moment.

As for Trelving's days being numbered. It could be, but I don't feel like it's necessary. He could co-exist with Sutter and leverage his hockey knowledge in improving the team. The team's poor performance is a good reason to get him some help, weather he wants it or not. But that's one way to save his reputation. If he were to quit or get fired he'd leave with the baggage of building a bad team. Tough to recover from that, just look at Button.

[Toonage]

Originally Posted by kukkudo

I honestly think Lombardi will come on board in the off-season as President/GM of the Flames. Flames clean house at the top and all assistant coaches.

Mike Futa also available and worked with the Kings during Sutter's time there I believe?

Is Lombardi still working with the Flyers as an advisor?

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by kukkudo

I honestly think Lombardi will come on board in the off-season as President/GM of the Flames. Flames clean house at the top and all assistant coaches.

I’m down for that.

[Red]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

That's a leap.
Also, Friedman said that he believes this was Treliving's decision alone. No ownership meddling.

Not a leap at all. And the Flames would do everything in their power to make it look like it was a Treliving idea.

Trelving said that he had talks with Sutter about the job in the past. A few times. But made it seem like Sutter didn't want it.

I ask when those talks happened? Not during Gulutzan hire, Sutter was in LA still. Not when Peters got hired, Treliving didn't talk to anyone else. And with the way Carolina released him it looks like it was true, Treliving was waiting for Peters to become available.

So the only time it could have happened is a couple months ago. So why would Sutter not take it then? Make no sense.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

That's a leap.
Also, Friedman said that he believes this was Treliving's decision alone. No ownership meddling.

What I heard is that ownership was involved, but not something they dictated to him. A decision they all arrived at.

Darryl is very connected to this ownership group. More than any coaching hire in the history of the organization. That is the reality in which Treliving now operates.

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

What I heard is that ownership was involved, but not something they dictated to him. A decision they all arrived at.

Darryl is very connected to this ownership group. More than any coaching hire in the history of the organization. That is the reality in which Treliving now operates.

Yeah I kinda feel that I'm over pondering whether or not Treliving should stay.

My guess is that the ownership is going to ask that question from Sutter pretty much no matter how this season goes, and what ever Sutter says should happen will happen... And I also think Darryl is pretty much the best possible person to make that call. I don't mean perfect, I really mean "I can't think of a realistic scenario where a better qualified person would be making that call."

That's kind of comforting.

[SuperMatt18]

Happy Darryl Sutter Day!

Trying to remain positive and seems exciting that Darryl can join the team today and then they don't play until Thursday, so some time to influence some change.

[Bourque's Twin]

Originally Posted by SportsJunky

That's a leap.
Also, Friedman said that he believes this was Treliving's decision alone. No ownership meddling.

Like I said earlier, I know for a fact that this was heavily, heavily influenced by ownership.

[Flames0910]

Is there a press conference or any media availability today? Can't seem to stop refreshing waiting for any tidbits of news

[868904]

Originally Posted by Red

Not a leap at all. And the Flames would do everything in their power to make it look like it was a Treliving idea.

Trelving said that he had talks with Sutter about the job in the past. A few times. But made it seem like Sutter didn't want it.

I ask when those talks happened? Not during Gulutzan hire, Sutter was in LA still. Not when Peters got hired, Treliving didn't talk to anyone else. And with the way Carolina released him it looks like it was true, Treliving was waiting for Peters to become available.

So the only time it could have happened is a couple months ago. So why would Sutter not take it then? Make no sense.

This could be. Who were the goalies when Hartley and GG were fired? Who were the goalies when Peters was let go? Would Sutter walk into a situation where there was no legitimate number 1 goalie in the fold?

Darryl is a proud man, he was not going to step into a rebuild situation or a situation that he didn't think he had a chance at winning with. He already had his 2 cups. I don't think he was going to come in and coach the team with Brian Elliott, Mike Smith or David Rittich as the number 1.

I could see that the acquisition of Markstrom made it worth Darryl's time. Now before this season started and after Markstrom had signed, maybe then, the decision to re-hire Ward was on Treliving because he liked what he saw in the play-in bubble, but given the terrible start to this season, "the stars aligned" and both Treliving and Darryl wanted it.

That's just my guess based on everything that Tre and Darryl have said.

[delayedreflex]

Originally Posted by Red

Not a leap at all. And the Flames would do everything in their power to make it look like it was a Treliving idea.

Trelving said that he had talks with Sutter about the job in the past. A few times. But made it seem like Sutter didn't want it.

I ask when those talks happened? Not during Gulutzan hire, Sutter was in LA still. Not when Peters got hired, Treliving didn't talk to anyone else. And with the way Carolina released him it looks like it was true, Treliving was waiting for Peters to become available.

So the only time it could have happened is a couple months ago. So why would Sutter not take it then? Make no sense.

There are a few of possibilities - one could be that the terms that Brad were offering in the past didn't seem worthwhile for Darryl - eg. salary, or only offering a 1-year contract or something, vs. the 3-year that he signed now. Another might be if Treliving is now agreeing to other things behind the scenes like allowing Darryl more say in personnel decisions. Or Brad might have been like "we're looking for someone to coach in this particular style, are you interested in doing that" and Darryl was like "nah, I'll only coach on my own terms".

That being said, I also highly doubt that ownership wasn't heavily involved in this decision - I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like "it's your decision Brad, but you know our stance on the matter" - so it could be technically true that Brad was the "sole decision maker" but I'm not sure that really means much.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Red

Not a leap at all. And the Flames would do everything in their power to make it look like it was a Treliving idea.

Trelving said that he had talks with Sutter about the job in the past. A few times. But made it seem like Sutter didn't want it.

I ask when those talks happened? Not during Gulutzan hire, Sutter was in LA still. Not when Peters got hired, Treliving didn't talk to anyone else. And with the way Carolina released him it looks like it was true, Treliving was waiting for Peters to become available.

So the only time it could have happened is a couple months ago. So why would Sutter not take it then? Make no sense.

It's not just Treliving. Sutter himself has confirmed that they have been in regular communication for what seems like a long time now. We know that Treliving was waiting on Peters to become available, but we do not know that he did not have a conversation with Sutter prior to that. Based on comments by both Treliving and Sutter that certainly seems likely. Sutter officially retired from coaching a couple months after Peters was hired, and I think it is possible that he informally took himself out of the running for the Flames job prior to that. In Sutter's interviews from the past several days it seems pretty clear that an incentive for taking the job is the makeup of current roster, so it would then be unsurprising if there was a lower level of interest on his end with different roster configurations—whatever those may have been.

I believe that in the off-season the decision on a head coach was always set on one of either Sutter or Ward. The most popular opinion here seems to be that Ward was Treliving's pick, and Sutter was the owners, and that ownership deferred to Treliving but have now pulled rank to hire their first choice.

However, it is also possible that the situation was reversed: perhaps Treliving's first choice was Sutter, but ownership was more set on Ward as a cost-saving measure while staring down millions of dollars of losses during the pandemic. Perhaps it was a group decision from the beginning to try something, and then to alter course when it was very clearly not working at all. Correcting the mistake of hiring Ward was definitely much easier to swallow than it would have been attempting to correct the mistake of a much higher dollar commitment to Sutter in the first place.

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Happy Darryl Sutter Day!

Trying to remain positive and seems exciting that Darryl can join the team today and then they don't play until Thursday, so some time to influence some change.

For me the season really starts now with 30 games left. This team finally has the goalie and coach that can win them a round but it will be a push just to get in.

I have hated the Flames from an entertainment standpoint in most of their games. It is frustrating to not see a consistent team shift to shift and I am confident Sutter will get these guys playing with intensity and confidence.

It sucks they lost both on the weekend but for me the real push and season starts now that Sutter is with the team and will be behind the bench