June 12: The Flames are expected to name Huska their head coach in a press conference this morning, Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg reports. The team would later make the hire official.
June 9: After locking in Craig Conroy as their general manager last month, the Calgary Flames’ focus for the past few weeks has been exclusively on their search for a new head coach. Current assistant Ryan Huska has emerged as the leading contender to assume the role, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said during the second intermission of last night’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Huska’s emergence as Calgary’s top candidate is in line with the organization’s seemingly new philosophy. Since his hire, Conroy has expressed a keen desire to use the organization’s depth more effectively, something most felt was a struggle under previous coach Darryl Sutter.
Having spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach for the Flames and four seasons before that as the team’s AHL head coach, Huska has extensive experience in developing younger players and helping them transition to the pro level. Before his appointment as head coach of the AHL Adirondack Flames in 2014-15, Huska had spent 12 seasons behind the bench of the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets.
If appointed, Huska would succeed the aforementioned Sutter, who the Flames fired on May 1 ahead of his two-year extension kicking in this summer. Sutter’s firing came after one of the most disappointing Flames campaigns in recent memory, slipping out of the playoffs entirely thanks to a lack of chemistry among the team’s new complement of stars.
As noted by The Calgary Sun’s Wes Gilbertson, Huska is recognized in the organization as a strong communicator, an area of expertise Sutter evidently lacked heavily, especially with younger players. In his years behind the Flames bench, he’s been charged with running the team’s penalty kill, one of the team’s strongest elements.
Gilbertson also notes that during Huska’s time in Adirondack/Stockton, he was the head coach who oversaw the primary professional development of current Flames contributors Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington, and Andrew Mangiapane. He also coached potential Flames captain Mikael Backlund during his time in Kelowna.
While not a done deal, things do look promising for the 47-year-old to assume the role he’s prepped for over two decades. He would face the challenge of revitalizing the Flames’ core, especially Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri, and leading them back to the playoffs like many expected this season.
Flames risk losing Mitch Love if they go with Huska, and vice versa if they hire Love. Lose/lose situation. Tho, I think losing Mitch might be a bigger loss.
And part of the Flames lack of success during this regular season can be attributed to how much turnover they went thru over the past 2 seasons. Usually a team who flips thru a few players needs some time to gel with eachother. To someone who hates the flames but follows them closely living in Calgary and cheering for 2 rival teams, I suspect that is their case. They have a good team on paper for the most part, just need some chemistry and they can be right back in the thick of things.
Also the Sutter affect also hurt this team. That has already been rectified.
A little progress to the norm for Huberdeau and Kadri, and development from some prospects into the pros and they should be fine. But I’ll hold out hope that they just aren’t constructed right and will suck for another season.
Good move, Huska and Love both seem to be solid choices and removed from the re-tread carousel.
Integrating young players into the lineup (i.e. organizational depth as Conroy said) should be the priority; ultimately the Flames need some wiggle room in the cap and that is the bonus from playing young players.
The Blackhawks have Mrazek and Soderblom-Stauber for this year. We’re stuck with Mrazek. So Commesso, and Maybe Basse in the system. I think the Hawks should draft Hrabal, However they need to. I saw one mock draft saying the Hawks would draft Trey Augustine in the second round. What is your opinion of Hrabal and Augustine? I think the Hawks stay put at 1 and 19. Then they take their high second round pick and package it with a player or more picks to get back into the late 1st round and take Hrabal or if he’s gone Gauthier. I think that would be a great scenario for the Hawks. I think you can never have enough good Goalies. Thoughts?
Oops- Wrong post. Was supposed to be in the mailbag. My Bad.
@Unclemike1526—Even so, I’ll give you a thumbs up for the truth in advertising part of the show—”We’re stuck with Mrazek”. Tough, but true. I now call him Mr. Azek, as in the guy from accounting that dreams of being an ECHL netminder. :(