Calgary Flames Hire Glen Gulutzan to Serve as Head Coach

The Calgary Flames announced on Friday that they hired Vancouver Canucks assistant coach, Glen Gulutzan as their head coach. 

Flames general manager, Brad Treliving made the announcement of Gulutzan becoming their head coach at the Scotiabank Saddledome almost seven weeks after relieving Bob Hartley of his duties behind the bench. 

With the hiring of Gulutzan, the Flames filled the final coaching vacancy in the National Hockey League for the 2016-2017 season. 

Treliving said, “We went through a real process in this search. This is an important person we need to bring into our organization. We spent the first while building a profile. ‘What it is we are looking for in a coach? What is the best fit?’ You talk about who the best coach is for a particular team, what kind of coach was our team ready for. We went through a lot of those before we got into the field and the market and talking to people.”

“We built a real in-depth profile and started going through the process. As we went through it, it became very clear meeting with Glen early that this was a perfect match.”

The 44-year-old Gulutzan, spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach behind the Canuks bench. From 2011 to 2013 he served as head coach of the Dallas Stars, replacing Marc Crawford on June 16, 2011. His two seasons in Dallas, the Stars went 64-57-9, but failed to make the postseason.

Prior to his stint in Dallas, he coached their American Hockey League affiliate, the Texas Stars, from 2009 to 2011. He led the Stars top minor club to the Calder Cup Finals in 2011, but was unable to take home the trophy. 

Gulutzan also was the bench boss for the Flames ECHL affiliate the Las Vegas Thunder from 2003 to 2009.  

Gulutzan said, “What a whirlwind here. It is an honor to be the head coach of the Calgary Flames. I started back here in this organization. When Darryl Sutter was running it I was in Las Vegas and it was one of the first calls I made, was trying to get an affiliation.”

He added, “I was there through that ’04 run right behind the Flames, but I was in Las Vegas. I watched Mark Giordano, Deryk Engelland and Dennis Wideman at rookie development camp here, all as free agents. I got my foot in the door back then. I never thought at some point that I would be coaching this team. It is quite an honor to be standing up here and be the coach of such a distinguished franchise.”

This past season the Flames went 35-40-7, amassing 77 points finishing behind the Minnesota Wild and the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, by 10 points. The Flames 257 non-shootout goals, were the most goals against in the NHL during the 2015-2016 season. 

The Flames also had the worst penalty kill at 75.5 percent and the 22^nd ranked power play, a 17 percent rating, during the regular season as well. 

Gulutzan said, “There will be definitely be a little bit of a style change in how we play. It will lead to an exciting game, it will be an exciting and connected team that you are going to see here.” 

He added, “What we want to be is a real connected group here. We want to be connected in fives in all three zones. We want to defend fast; we are going to defend fast. We are going to utilize the assets we have here. For me the trend is how quickly we can transition from offense to defense, how much we can stay connected so we can hold onto the puck, but still play fast, and how quickly we can get it back and utilize the strengths of the players we have here.” 

Gulutzan said, “The only way you can play that way is to stay connected as a group.” 

In regards to his new coach, Treliving said, “This is an individual who is smart. He is intelligent about the game, tactically, structurally. The interpersonal skills are what jumped out to me, his ability to communicate to people, his ability to drive players, and ultimately at the end of the day from my perspectives, to maximize the ability each player has, the team has. That is the most important quality for a coach.”         

He added, “As we did our homework, the one thing that kept coming back, we talked to all sorts of people that were around Glen in certain areas of certain times of his life, and it was not only the coach, but the person who was drilled home. A very special person; a very special coach.”