COME BACK KID?
CANUCKS: Vancouver may decide to bring back Glen Gulutzan to tutor the youngsters
Brock Boeser was still finding his way when Glen Gulutzan predicted a path to stardom was in sight.
After a pedestrian pre-season performance in which the Canucks’ rookie winger looked fatigued — one assist, one shot and a hit in a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Sept. 28 — the rival coach still offered prophet-like praise.
“He’s going to be a hell of a player,” said Gulutzan. “So smart. So strong. He slows the game down. Great passes.”
What does all that mean today? Boeser is a finalist for the Calder Trophy along with favourite Mathew Barzal and Clayton Keller and his first connection with Gulutzan was a 2015 development camp. The former Canucks assistant coach did what he does best — reaching young and impressionable players on another level — and he did the same in Calgary with Sean Monahan and Johnny Gaudreau.
That’s hard for a head coach. It’s usually delegated to an assistant.
Regardless, Gulutzan and assistants Dave Cameron and Paul Jerrard were fired April 17.
The Flames, who were in a playoff spot at the trade deadline, lost Monahan, Mike Smith and Matthew Tkachuk to injuries and lost their fire in a 4-13-1 stretch-drive free fall. Gulutzan was replaced Monday by Bill Peters, who exercised a rare outclause and resigned as head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes.
So now the question beckons in this market: The Canucks have vowed to be young next season, so should they consider bringing Gulutzan back into their fold as an assistant addition or replacement?
“We’re still trying to figure that all out — I’m talking to our coaches right now,” Canucks general manager Jim Benning said Monday. “There are going to be some decisions on some of them that we need to figure out.
“Glen did an excellent job when he worked with us before. We really haven’t got to the point where we’re figuring out more names and what that looks like. But we are going to be younger and we need to make sure we have somebody who can continue to do that (work with the young players). It’s a big job. Communicating and working with them after practice, there’s going to be more work involved. That’s something we’re looking at.”
Rookie NHL head coach Travis Green brought Nolan Baumgartner with him from the Utica Comets. Doug Jarvis was retained from the Willie Desjardins’ regime, while Newell Brown returned to run the power play. Manny Malhotra was added as an assistant to work with player development, while Dan Cloutier continued to work as goalie coach.
Gulutzan is anxious to work again, but obviously still bitter about his dismissal.
“The expectation when I came in was to play meaningful games in March and we overachieved in going from 77 to 94 points,” he said Monday of the Flames’ 2016-17 record. “Then we’re supposed to win the Stanley Cup — it doesn’t work that way.
“We were going to get there (the playoffs) if we didn’t get injured, and Calgary has some good young guys.”
Gulutzan didn’t want to leave Vancouver after three seasons as an assistant.
But how do you turn down an NHL head-coaching gig when Calgary came calling in June 2016 with a three-year commitment to replace Bob Hartley? Especially after running the Dallas bench for two seasons and not making the playoffs, and believing the Flames could get to the post-season — which they did.
Gulutzan has a year left on his Flames contract and the 46-yearold has already fielded interest from two NHL rebuilding teams to work with their respective young players. A third could be the Canucks because what Gulutzan brings is what they need.
“It’s my strength,” he said. “I talked to Monahan and Gaudreau all the time — I think that’s the biggest thing. I had some hard talks with Johnny and they’re both good kids. They want to win. You have to appeal to that and they had career years.”
Gaudreau, 24, led the Flames in scoring with 84 points (24-60) in 80 games and Monahan, 23, was second with 64 points (31-33) in 74 games. Boeser managed 55 points (29-26) in just 62 games and was caught by Daniel Sedin to share the team scoring lead. Bo Horvat was third in goals with 23, despite missing 18 games with an ankle fracture.
Gulutzan has also worked with Horvat, but in Boeser he knew early on that there was something special in the rookie winger.
“I remember him playing 3-on-3 at development camp (2015) and thinking: ‘Oh, my God. Look at this player. He had all the NHL subtleties,’ ” recalled Gulutzan. “And it just jumped out at me again at Penticton (Young Stars tourney). Everybody was loving Mark Jankowski (Flames first-round pick) and Boeser was a pro among boys. He had something.”
■ OVERTIME: Benning confirmed Monday that Elias Pettersson, fresh off a dominant MVP performance in leading the Vaxjo Lakers to a sweep in the Swedish Elite League final, will represent his country at the world championship tournament next month in Denmark. Olli Juolevi is with the Finnish national team and could also play in the world tourney.