Recently fired Calgary Flames head coach, Glen Gulutzan, will be joining the Edmonton Oilers as an assistant coach. Oh boy.
Word around the street is that tomorrow, it will be officially announced that Glen Gulutzan will join the Edmonton Oilers coaching staff. He was recently let go by the Calgary Flames and they shortly after named Bill Peters their new head coach. It has been a productive 30 days for Gulutzan, hey?
Gulutzan is still under contract with the Flames for another year, so they’re basically paying him to play against them this upcoming season. While a few fans on Twitter were calling for Gulutzan’s head, I don’t know if he necessarily deserved the boot as much as people said he did. The one thing that the team could have had a big improvement on was special teams. Otherwise, there wasn’t a whole lot that was under his control.
He had poor goaltending in the last few months of the season, Sean Monahan had some injuries that prevented him from being the best he could be and contributing more, and he didn’t have a whole lot to work with when it came to the bottom-six.
As an assistant coach with the Oilers now, it’s unclear what his position will be. I mean, if it’s the powerplay, the Flames have nothing to worry about. Maybe this was Brad Treliving’s plan all along.
According to Jason Gregor, former NHL head coach Trent Yawney and current head coach of the Swift Current Broncos, Manny Viveiros, who he just led to the Memorial Cup finals, will be joining as assistant coaches as well to Todd McLellan.
Next: The good and the bad of Glen Gulutzan
Even though it’s Edmonton, I’m glad Gulutzan has found a job elsewhere. He wasn’t a bad coach, he just wasn’t right for the Flames at the time. I think he’ll do well as an assistant.