Ryan Huska, New Man Behind Calgary Bench
The Calgary Flames are promoting Ryan Huska to head coach. The British Columbia native will be filling the vacancy left after the team fired Darryl Sutter. The former assistant now completes the clean sweep of Flames leadership after both Sutter and former general manager Brad Treliving were relieved of their duties.
Kevin Weekes confirmed the news of Huska’s appointment on Twitter:
**Breaking News**
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) June 9, 2023
Credit @FriedgeHNIC for his report last night; the @NHLFlames will be naming Ryan Huska as their new HC, I’m told Press Conference to be held on Monday.
Pls excuse the Legend in background . @espn @NHL @NHLNetwork #HockeyTwitter pic.twitter.com/7s3vfuc98p
Huska has been an assistant for Calgary since 2018, and has clearly paid his dues over the past five seasons. He is going to inherit a team that needs some type of jolt as quickly as possible. In hindsight, the Matthew Tkachuk trade has not exactly worked out as well as the Flames have hoped.
After only one year with Jonathan Huberdeau, reports are already swirling that they’ve had enough of him. They finished only two points behind Winnipeg for the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. It’s now becoming a question of how much longer they want to kick the can down the road with this core.
The Man For The Job
Huska has been in the Flames organization since 2014, when he coached their AHL affiliate for four seasons. The 47-year-old only played a single game in the NHL, which was for the Blackhawks in the 1997-98 season.
Having some familiarity with the players and a fresh voice could certainly be a plus, as things were souring with Sutter in charge. Despite only having $1.25 million in cap space, the Flames do own their draft picks for 2023 so they could potentially add someone.
He has been known as a defensive coach throughout his career, but for good reason. His expertise even helped the Flames own an 81.7% penalty kill in 2022-2023, the sixth-best mark in the league. It now remains to be seen what kind of decisions will be made for the assistant coaching positions.
After many years working up the NHL food chain, Ryan Huska will now have his first chance as an NHL coach. The Calgary Flames are hoping he could be the change they need to return to the playoffs.
