Calgary Flames: Five things to look forward to in 2018-19

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BEIJING, CHN – SEPTEMBER 17: Head coach Bill Peters of the Calgary Flames gives instructions during practice at the O.R.G. AZ Rink on September 17, 2018 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images) /

4. New bench bosses

This off-season, Brad Treliving said “See ya!” to Glen Gulutzan and co. and brought in a completely new set of bench bosses. Gulutzan, along with assistant coaches Paul Jerrard and Dave Cameron, said goodbye to Calgary. While I wasn’t totally opposed with this decision (especially with letting go Cameron, good riddance), it wasn’t completely Gulutzan’s fault. And Jerrard was actually a great penalty-killing coach, so he was basically only guilty by association.

Treliving brought in new head coach Bill Peters, who previously coached the Carolina Hurricanes for the last four seasons. Although the Canes didn’t qualify for the post-season in either of those seasons, we have to give Peters the benefit of the doubt. I’ve already mentioned this a few months ago, but he didn’t have quality goaltending, his top centerman put up just 19 goals, and the team spent $15 million below the salary cap. $15 million can get you a pretty competent second line. In fact, if Elias Lindholm stays on the top line with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan, that’s just slightly under $18 million for the top line.

Read. Flames hire Bill Peters as new head coach. light

It’s quite difficult for a coach to be successful when they aren’t given the right tools to succeed. And it seems like Peters isn’t messing around. While Gulutzan was a “nice guy”, that was somewhat of his downfall as well. With Peters, he decided that Curtis Lazar needed to go on waivers (finally), he’s sticking with the quality penalty-killing partners the Calgary Flames used last season and is sticking with what works rather than trying everything new. It seems like he’s learning from his mistakes in Carolina and is actually listening.

On top of Peters, they brought on Ryan Huska from Stockton and Geoff Ward from the New Jersey Devils. Ward is an excellent powerplay coach, and with all the powerplay struggles the team faced last season, this is what they needed. Huska has been somewhat credited with the development of the Flames prospects and will be working with them closely.

While a new set of coaches isn’t going to solve everything, it sure was a great start to the off-season.

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