ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA — In the last week, general manager Brad Treliving has narrowed down his search for the next head coach of the Calgary Flames. But it was not exactly done by choice.
With Minnesota hiring Bruce Boudreau on Sunday, Guy Boucher and Marc Crawford taking jobs in Ottawa one day later, and Darryl Sutter re-signing in Los Angeles on Friday, four potential coaching candidates have been taken off market. The list could get even smaller if the Anaheim Ducks, who recently received permission from the Senators to talk to minor-league coach Luke Richardson, fill their vacancy.
But Treliving insists he is not worried about the shrinking talent pool. Nor is he pressured to make a decision before all the so-called good coaches get snatched up.
“It’s no different than building a team,” Treliving, who is in Russia as Team Canada’s GM, said while watching practice up in the stands on Friday. “It takes time. It’s personal fit. You’re trying to find a match and chemistry.”
As Treliving spoke, two out-of-work coaches — Mike Yeo and Dave Cameron, who lost their jobs this year with the Wild and Senators, respectively — were on the ice in what some might consider an audition. A report out of Minnesota suggested that Treliving had asked the Wild for permission to speak with Yeo, who is still under contract, and that the two had met on Wednesday.
Neither would confirm that happened or wanted to get into about specifics, but it is fair to say that Treliving is casting a very large net on what could be his most important move since being named GM two years ago.
“I’m not rushing it because I want to hit a certain date,” he said. “There’s no time pressure, but having said that, you don’t want to wait until September either.”
Treliving wouldn’t say which coaches he is targeting or how many he has interviewed, but there are some interesting names out there. In fact, he could spend every day for a month interviewing a new coach and he wouldn’t get through the list of potential candidates.
If the Flames want to go with experience, Randy Carlyle has coached more than 700 NHL games and has a history with Flames president Brian Burke. Minor-league coaches Travis Green, Luke Richardson and Sheldon Keefe are believed to be the next big things, while assistant coaches Mike Kitchen (Chicago) and Trent Yawney (Anaheim) could be in line for a bigger role.
“There’s lots of good people,” said Treliving. “People obviously know the job situations. It’s been a healthy process so far. By the end of the day, I know we’re going to find the right fit.”
Treliving said he is looking for someone with experience, but that the quality of experience matters more than the actual years of service. He is “not just looking for a name” or “someone who’s coached for 20 years” or even a former NHL head coach. But he does want someone, whether it is an assistant coach, minor-league coach, or someone from major junior or college, who had a role in building something of significance.
“To me it’s not as much about where you’ve coached, but what you’ve built and what your piece was in growing it,” said Treliving. “It’s being involved in winning programs.”
Being able to develop and work with youngsters is important, considering that the Flames’ core includes Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Sam Bennett, who are all 22 or younger. But at the same time, Treliving is “not hiring somebody to coach one, two or three guys.”
The No. 1 priority — and this is why the process is taking so long — is finding the right match. Not just for the players, but for Treliving as well.
Treliving inherited Bob Hartley as a head coach, who won the Jack Adams Award after leading Calgary to the second round of the playoffs in 2015. But after the Flames took a giant step backwards and finished with the fifth-worst record this year, Treliving decided to go in a different direction.
As reporters have noted, he and Hartley did not see eye-to-eye on a number of issues. Treliving might have hinted at this, saying it’s critical to have an “in-sync relationship” between the GM and head coach.
“You’re in lock-step with each other and you debate and you argue and do all that other stuff,” he said. “But I don’t think a coach should show up one day and there’s four new players there.”
So when can Calgary expect to have a new coach? It won’t be today, laughed Treliving. And it won’t be the day before training camp opens.
“It’s going to be sometime between then,” he said. “I haven’t set a mile marker, but you’d obviously like it done soon, because there are other things you have to do.”