Glen Gulutzan is no longer the head coach of Calgary Flames, the team has announced on Tuesday. Gulutzan, who spent two seasons with the team, was relieved of his duties alongside assistants Dave Cameron and Paul Jerrard. Gulutzan’s exit comes after the Flames finished the season with 37-35-10 record and missed the playoffs.
“These are never easy decisions,” – said team’s general manager Brad Treliving during a press conference on Tuesday. “Accountability lies with all of us. As a manager, I lead that charge. When you make a decision that I made today, there’s lots of blame to go around … there’s more than just the coach in terms of the failure we had this season. I came to this conclusion because I felt it needed to be done as we move forward.“
Brad Treliving also confirmed that assistant coach Martin Gelinas, goaltending coach Jordan Sigalet and video coach Jamie Pringle will stay with the team.
“There won’t be any other further coaching moves at this stage.” – he added.
Calgary Flames entered the 2018 part of NHL season on a second spot in the Pacific Division and boosting a seven games winning streak. They then lost six in a row and fall down to the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference in February. Still, they didn’t manage to hang onto it, losing the nine of their last 11 games of the season.
Glen Gulutzan started his NHL coaching career with the Dallas Stars in 2011, but only lasted two seasons, missing the playoffs in both of them. After serving as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks, Gulutzan was named Calgary Flames’ head coach succeeding Bob Hartley. Gulutzan compiled 82-68-14 with the Flames in his two seasons with the team.
