FLAMES, PETERS WOULD FIT WELL
Hurricanes coach has strong international record and is fan of analytics like Treliving
Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving made it clear Tuesday how much he values experience as he searches for a new coach to replace Glen Gulutzan.
This team and this management group simply can’t afford to go through any more growing pains. With that in mind, we present the top candidates:
BILL PETERS
NHL record: 137-138-53
The 53-year-old native of Three Hills, Alta., is the early favourite to take the job — he has been for over a month as insiders knew of Peters’ out-clause in Carolina and figured Glen Gulutzan would get the axe if the Flames missed the playoffs.
There’s a familiarity there as Peters was the coach of Canada’s gold-medal-winning world championship team that Treliving was co- GM for in 2016.
Peters played at Red Deer College under Mike Babcock and essentially cut his coaching teeth as an assistant with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs before getting his first head coaching gig with the University of Lethbridge.
A return to Spokane as head coach saw him lead the Chiefs to a Memorial Cup in 2007-08 before a three-year stint coaching Rockford of the AHL.
As assistant’s job with Detroit led to his four-year stint running the Hurricanes.
The knock on him will be that he has no playoff experience as an NHL head coach, as the perennially undermanned ’Canes have yet to qualify for the post-season under him.
His team also faded down the stretch this year, just like the Flames.
Hurricanes president Don Waddell said several teams have asked for permission to speak to Peters, who has until Friday to opt out of the final year of a deal paying him US$1.6 million.
He has a solid international record, having led Canada to gold at the under-18 Ivan Hlinka tourney in 2008 as well as gold as an assistant at the 2015 worlds and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
He’s big on possession analytics, which is something Treliving believes strongly in.
He is said to have a strong desire to return to Alberta, where he has spent so much of his life.
Peters has never been afraid to call out players, which is something that could go a long way around here.
He is the head coach of Canada’s world championship team this month, so rumours will increase if Treliving flies to Denmark to see the tourney.
DARRYL SUTTER
NHL record: 634-467-83
Boy, does this possibility get chins wagging.
He has, um, several ties to the province and the city.
OK, let’s be real — he’s as known a commodity as there is out there.
The question is whether the Flames would dare go back to the Sutter well for the fourth time.
A two-time Stanley Cup winner in Los Angeles after his eight years in Calgary ended in 2010, the 59-year-old resident of Viking, Alta., certainly ticks several boxes in terms of what the Flames need.
A taskmaster who immediately commands the attention of every team he’s taken over, Sutter wouldn’t put up with the handful of players on the Flames roster who aren’t in tune with the notion of trying to out-will opponents with whatever it takes to win.
He wouldn’t come cheap, but Treliving insists ownership has not constricted him in terms of a coaching budget.
Sutter told me last summer he’d consider returning to coaching “if the situation was right.”
Misty-eyed Flames fans remember him as a great coach (but a poor GM) who dragged the Flames to the 2004 Cup final. He was the last coach in Calgary to establish an identity for the team, compiling a 107-73-15-15 record as a tough, relentless and physical team nobody liked to play against.
However, today’s game is no longer about brawn, but speed.
DAVE TIPPETT
NHL Record: 553-413-28-120
Considered to be one of the best NHL coaching candidates on the sidelines all season, Tippett is an interesting possibility as it relates to the Flames.
Treliving and Tippett worked together for many years in Arizona, where the coach was the Jack Adams Award winner in 2009-10 when he led the Coyotes to a 28-point improvement from the previous year. He made a similar impact in Dallas when he started a six-year stint there by improving the Stars’ fortunes by 21 points his first year.
As Tippett’s longtime assistant GM, Treliving would know all about what Tippett can and can’t bring to the table. Tippett, 56, ultimately won a power struggle in the desert that saw GM Don Maloney get ousted, which adds an interesting wrinkle as Maloney is a now a Flames staffer who is close with Treliving.
A longtime NHL player and Olympian, Tippett has 14 years of NHL head coaching experience, winning three division titles and twice getting to the conference finals.
ALAIN VIGNEAULT
NHL Record: 648-435-35-98
Another Jack Adams Award winner who has won two Presidents Trophies and made two appearances in the Stanley Cup final, Vigneault is armed with plenty of experience.
Recently relieved by the New York Rangers, the price tag for the former Canucks and Canadiens coach would be high.
With 20 years experience in the NHL, he has made the playoffs nine of the last 10 years.
There are reports he wasn’t interested in being part of a rebuild in New York. Surely he wouldn’t see Calgary as a rebuild, given the strong core pieces in place already.
LINDY RUFF
NHL record: 736-554-78-125
He spent 15 years squeezing everything he could out of the Sabres before moving onto Dallas for four more seasons.
Sixth all-time in NHL coaching wins, he certainly has the experience and the Alberta ties, as he was born in tiny Warburg, Alta., and played junior in Lethbridge and Taber.
A Jack Adams winner in 2006, the 58-year-old has won three division titles and lost in the Stanley Cup final once. He was an assistant with the Rangers this year.
THE REST
Should Barry Trotz’s Washington Capitals lose in the first round there’s a chance he could be fired, opening the door for a possible hire there.
After all, the Manitoba native has endless Western Canadian ties and has won three consecutive division titles with the Caps.
Oilers coach Todd McLellan would also be of interest if Edmonton parts ways with him.
As impressive as Ryan Huska has been with the AHL’s Stockton Heat, Treliving isn’t willing to go through any more growing pains, trying out hotshot minor league coaches.
That eliminates candidates like Tim Hunter (Moose Jaw) and Sheldon Keefe with the Toronto Marlies.
If the trend in the National Hockey League is leaning toward speed and skill, then Matthew Phillips should have no problem cracking the Calgary Flames lineup in the near future. Potentially, as soon as this fall. Of course, it’s still April and the big club’s disappointing, playoffless National Hockey League season just wrapped up last week. And Phillips, a sixth-round selection (166th overall) of the Flames from the 2016 NHL draft, abruptly saw his Western Hockey League season end last week after a secondround, four-game sweep by the Tri-City Americans.
Depending on the way the offseason goes — for the Victoria Royals captain (from a training-perspective) and the team (from an internal analysis perspective) — there might be room for the right-winger at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“I don’t know,” said Phillips with a chuckle, when asked if he’s ready for prime time. “I’ve been trying to get better every season and statistically, I guess that’s happened every year. But I think I’ll have a better idea of that in the fall. I think I’ve had three good years in Victoria and I don’t know if I’ll be back playing junior or not.
“But I believe wherever I’m at next year, it’ll be the best for my development.”
Outside of a WHL title, there’s not much left for Phillips to accomplish at the junior level.
Phillips, who turned 20 on April 6, finished fifth in league scoring with 48 goals and 64 assists in 71 games, giving him 112 points in 2017-18. He added another six goals and 13 assists in 11 post-season contests.
It’s a solid jump from last season, which saw him net 50 goals and 40 assists in 70 games — a 90-point season as an 18-year-old — and an even larger leap from 2015-16 when he scored 37 goals and 76 points in 72 games.
So, in theory, there’s nothing standing his way of convincing the rest of the Flames’ management that he deserves to be either with the team’s American Hockey League affiliate in Stockton or, at some point, in The Show.
“Everyone wants to play there, everyone wants to play in the NHL,” said Phillips who could, technically, still return to the WHL for his overage season. “That’s what you work for, so you have to have the belief that it’s possible. Definitely not in a cocky or arrogant way, but you want to believe in yourself and work toward that. I followed the team pretty closely and it’s definitely encouraging when you see guys like Mark (Jankowski) go up and when (Andrew) Mangiapane came up and played well and Foosy (Spencer Foo) at the end of the year.
“When you see those guys getting there and doing well, it’s encouraging.”
The Calgary native had a small taste of pro last spring when he joined the Heat for one regular season game and a pair of playoff contests.
But because Stockton missed the AHL post-season — a double whammy for the Flames’ organization — hockey is done for the year. Phillips will take a few weeks off before joining a few of the Calgarybased prospects in the gym for the summer under the watch of Flames’ strength and conditioning coach Ryan van Asten
Diminutive in stature at fivefoot-seven and 155 pounds, Phillips is realistic: bulking up is one of his main goals this off-season.
“That’s just a fact,” Phillips said. “(Pro hockey) going to be a lot more difficult than junior and I need to have a really good summer in the gym. I battle gaining weight — it just doesn’t come easy for me to gain weight. But I think if I can keep getting stronger and work on my skills a lot more in the summer, I’ll hopefully be rolling when camp comes along.”
With his speed and skill, plus some added muscle, Phillips could be an intriguing addition to the team’s depth chart on right wing.
“The way the game is changing, the speed is so important,” he pointed out. “Personally, that’s a big part of my game and that’s how I find success is through speed and being quick and being tough to check. That’s something I need to work on because as you’re watching the best players in the world, their strengths are also speed.”