Sutter’s Rebels rise to the top
RED DEER – When you’re the owner and general manager, you can call on executive privilege if you also want to be the coach, but Brent Sutter swears he wasn’t hankering to replace his friend, Jesse Wallin, behind the bench of the junior Red Deer Rebels six weeks ago.
Sutter didn’t see enough wins at the Enmax Centrium, a requisite for any team, and didn’t see nearly enough emotion or commotion in the Rebels in mid-November.
So, with the team a shade under .500, Sutter made his first firing. He came to a parting of the ways with big brother Brian several years back after one season, but “that was a mutual decision.”
This one hurt because Wallin knows his stuff, but the Rebels have been the Western Hockey League’s best team, with only three regulation losses in 16 games since Sutter took over on Nov. 14. So, when Sutter looked in the mirror, he was right to see himself as coach, too.
He may only do it for the rest of the season, with his recently hired assistant Jeff Truitt, who used to coach the Edmonton Oilers’ American Hockey League farm team in Springfield, Mass., a possible successor. But, for now, he is doing what he loves.
“Jesse is a good coach, but it had run its course. You sense it, you see it, you see the discouragement on the players’ faces and the coaching staff,” said Sutter, who turned over about half his roster in the first month or so with several trades.
“You sit back and evaluate your team and ... ” said Sutter, who didn’t like what he saw, not just the Rebels’ 10-11-1-1 record. “There’s two signs you always look at ... how you play at home, and we were terrible, and we weren’t playing with a lot of passion. Our mindset was to win games 1-0, 2-1, and there were nights I’d be sitting there and I’d be seeing 15, 16, 20 shots for a whole game. You can’t win like that, not the way the game’s played now,” he said.
Sutter, who was the Rebels’ GM/coach before Lou Lamoriello hired him to coach in New Jersey in 2007, has a wellearned reputation as a coach who demands defensive responsibility — in the junior game and in the NHL with the Devils and Calgary Flames — but he’s smart enough to know that fast-skating, offensive hockey sells and also wins games, if you’ve got skill to go with a few thrills.
He traded for ex-NHLer David Volek’s son, Dominik (Sutter and Volek played together with the New York Islanders); and acquired Wyatt Johnson, Matt Bellerive, Christian Stockl and a tough overage defender, Brandon Underwood. He didn’t sell the farm, giving away high bantam draft picks.
Sutter may be quiet on Jan. 10, the WHL’s trade deadline, while the bigger teams scramble to add a piece, but “your finger is always on the pulse, you can’t ever drop your guard. We’ll see.”
When Sutter left the Flames, he coached Canada’s world championship team, which many people thought was a trial run to coach the Oilers because Edmonton president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe was GM of the world squad. But the Oilers kept it in-house and hired associate coach Ralph Krueger.
Sutter was the Rebels owner, only, during the summer. But he took over the GM post from Wallin, who was doing both jobs. He thought it was too much for one guy — even now Sutter is on the ice only 50 per cent of the time because he wants to get out and scout or he’s on the phone with other general managers.
Wallin, who will likely get another job in the WHL down the road because he can coach, doesn’t have another job with the Rebels, but Sutter says they’ll be talking soon.
“He’s being a dad ... he’s got a young daughter and son. We’ll sit down and see what he wants to do. He’s a good friend. This was very tough (firing),” said Sutter.
The Rebels don’t have a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but they have the eighth-most points in the league. They’re in the mix for the WHL championship, and they have two very good 16-year-olds — defenceman Haydn Fleury and centre Conner Bleackley, both playing with Team Pacific in the world Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Red Deer has sent scores of players to the NHL over the years, but when NugentHopkins left early, along with Sutter’s son, Brandon, who was traded in June from the Carolina Hurricanes to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Jordan Staal, it left a big hole.
“Those two kids left for the NHL at 18. You’re in business to get players to the NHL and you take pride in that, but ...”
But it set the Rebels back without their leadership. They’re on the right road now, maybe still sneaking up on teams.
“We’ve had a good stretch, but I’m also OK with us not getting a lot of respect because that comes with success and last year we missed the playoffs,” said Sutter.