Sutter fired as Flames coach, no replacement named

Calgary (38-27-17) missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time in three seasons, finishing two points behind the Winnipeg Jets for the second wild card from the Western Conference.

“As you do at the end of every season, you do a thorough review of your season,” Flames president of hockey operations Don Maloney said. “I interviewed 25 players, coaches, coaching staff, training staff, spoke to prominent agents who represent key players on our team, and it became clear to me that we needed a new voice to guide us forward.

“Darryl is a good coach and an experienced coach. I want to thank him for his three years of being behind the bench and doing the best job he could do.”

The move comes one season Sutter was voted winner of the Jack Adams Award as top coach in the NHL when the Flames won 50 games, finished first in the Pacific Division and reached the second round of the playoffs.

Sutter, who was hired March 4, 2021 to replace Geoff Ward, was 103-63-28 in three seasons during his second tenure with the Flames. In his first stint, from 2002-06, he was 107-73-15 with 15 ties. Sutter also served as general manager of the Flames from 2003-10.

“On behalf of ownership and all Calgary Flames fans, we want to thank Darryl for his cumulative years of service to the Calgary Flames and to the community at large,” Flames president and CEO John Bean said.

The coaching position is the second high-profile vacancy the Flames have to fill.

Calgary announced April 17 that Brad Treliving would not return as general manager. In nine seasons under Treliving, the Flames were 362-265-73, and went through five coaches: Bob Hartley, Glen Gulutzan, Bill Peters, Geoff Ward and Sutter. Maloney was named interim GM and promoted to president of hockey operations after Treliving’s departure.

It will be the responsibility of the new general manager to find Sutter’s replacement.

“That’s the logical pattern, is you hire a GM who hires the coach and a coaching staff,” Maloney said. “We have lots of time. It’s the first of May. We aren’t dropping the puck anytime soon. But I’ve been working behind the scenes and started to get names together of people I’m interested in talking to, and as we move forward in the days and weeks ahead, I’d rather get something together sooner than later. But that’ll just run its course.”

Overall, Sutter is 737-530-111 (101 ties) in 21 seasons with the Flames, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks. He’s ninth in NHL history in wins, and won the Stanley Cup twice with the Kings (2012, 2014).

“I debriefed Darryl for two and a half hours,” Maloney said. “It was, in my mind, very thorough, trying to understand what he did, how he viewed things. Darryl is a very sharp man. He’s got a good hockey mind. In today’s world he’s a firm coach, a hard coach, a demanding coach, that there’s a shelf life to that type of coaching. Unfortunately I felt his time expired with us. But this is not taking anything away from who he is and what he does and his name with the Calgary Flames organization.”

It will be the second straight offseason of significant change for the Flames.

Calgary added forwards Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri, and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar after losing forwards Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk during the offseason. Huberdeau, acquired in the trade that sent Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers, signed an eight-year, $84 million contract ($10.5 million average annual value) Aug. 4 that begins next season. He had 55 points (15 goals, 40 assists) in 79 games after he tied for second in the NHL last season with 115 points (30 goals, 85 assists).

“I completely lost my swagger this year,” Huberdeau said after the season ended.

Kadri, who signed a seven-year, $49 million contract ($7 million AAV) on Aug. 18, had 56 points (24 goals, 32 assists) in 82 games after scoring an NHL career-high 87 points (28 goals, 59 assists) in 71 games last season with the Colorado Avalanche, helping them win the Stanley Cup.

Goalie Jacob Markstrom was 23-21-12 with a 2.92 goals-against average, .892 save percentage and one shutout in 59 games (58 starts), one season after he was second in voting for the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the NHL.

“You don’t want to make it the inmates are running the asylum, so to speak, but [the players] had some real observations in how in their minds we should move forward,” Maloney said. “It was just one piece of the puzzle. It was really the whole evaluation was the entire organization both inside and outside.”

The Flames, who have failed to advance past the second round of the playoffs since losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games in the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, averaged 3.15 goals per game (19th), down from 3.55 (sixth) last season, and the power play fell from 22.9 percent (10th) to 19.8 percent (tied for 19th).

Tyler Toffoli led the Flames with 34 goals but only two other Calgary players scored at least 20, Kadri with 24 and Elias Lindholm with 22.

“I think we underachieved and generally underachieving doesn’t make for happy days,” Maloney said. “We’re optimistic when we hire the next manager and coach we’ll have a new attitude in the sense of, it’s a new beginning for a lot of players, including some of our players that had difficult seasons this year.

“As much as this is saying goodbye to a very good coach and a good person, this is also an exciting time for us to say, ‘Hey, we’re coming in fresh and new,’ and we’re going to bring energy and excitement to the building, including the locker room.”

Sutter is the fourth coach fired after the season, following Dallas Eakins (Anaheim Ducks), Peter Laviolette (Washington Capitals) and Brad Larsen (Columbus Blue Jackets).