2023-06-13 16:20:16
The 47-year-old former player, who was an assistant at Calgary for the past five seasons, replaces Darryl Sutter, fired on May 1. He will be a head coach for the first time in the NHL.
Five years in the franchise
“I know these players and I see it as something positive,” he said. Remember. “There are a lot of good people in our locker room and there are great hockey players who want to win, and they will do everything they can to succeed. I’m a big believer in that group of people and their ability, and my job now as head coach is to make sure I push them. every day to get the best version of them and also try to take them to another level both as individuals and as a team.”
Huska this season supervised the defensive plot and Calgary he allowed 27.3 shots against per game, third fewest in the NHL, and was tied with the New Jersey Devils fourth in fouls (82.6 percent) this season.
“When I looked around and said, ‘What am I looking for and who would be the best fit?’ It really became clear in the last four or five days that Ryan was the one,” said Calgary general manager, Craig Conroy. “I feel like he’s given his time, he’s done his best, the only thing he hasn’t had is the opportunity to be an NHL head coach, and now he is. He wanted a good communicator, a leader, someone who could inspire this group, play solid defensive hockey with structure, and then on the offensive end, I wanted our guys to be creative and take it to the next level offensively because they’re so skilled nowadays, all the guys.You want to let them have that free reign and do what they do best, and hopefully score a lot of goals. As we narrowed the search, it became increasingly clear to me that Ryan and I had the same vision.”
Career
Huska began his coaching career as an assistant for Kelowna’s Western Hockey League in 2002 and was named coach in 2007. Calgary hired Huska to coach the Adirondack of the American Hockey League in 2014-15, where he helped develop the team’s current defenders; Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington, and the striker Andrew Mangiapane.
The Cranbrook native, British Columbia, played an NHL game, for the Chicago Blackhawks in 1997-98, after being selected in the third round (No. 76) of the 1993 NHL Draft. He also played in the WHL, where he won the Memorial Cup with Kamloops three times (1992, 1994, 1995), and the International Hockey League (Indianapolis) and AHL (Lowell and Springfield) before retiring after the 1999-00 season.
“I was told at a young age that you have two eyes and two ears for a reason, and throughout my coaching career I was reminded of that,” Huska, who has been an assistant to Sutter, said. Geoff Ward and Bill Peters. “Through my time here in Calgary, I’ve been fortunate to work with some very good coaches. All the coaches have had different philosophies, different media, different ways of looking at the game and because of that experience I’ve had here within this organization I am 100 percent sure that I am ready for this challenge”.
Calgary Flames (38-27-17) failed to qualify for the Playoffs of the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons, finishing two points behind Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference. They fired the general manager Brad Treliving on April 17 and promoted Conroy to assistant general manager on May 23.
“There is always unhappiness when you don’t win,” he said Remember. “We will say no matter what the situation is. That’s the beauty of it all, the players who were good last year, the players who, in your opinion, didn’t have the year they wanted, it’s a fresh start. That’s something great because there’s a different energy around the track, there’s a different level of optimism.When you have that and you have good relationships with the people coming in, there’s excitement and enthusiasm and that’s what you want because you want a group of guys coming back excited and ready to go. From there, we’re going to work every day to make sure we’re going to connect them as a team.”
New coaches in the NHL
Following Huska’s hiring, two NHL teams remain without a coach: Columbus Blue Jackets y New York Rangers. Washington Capitals hired Spencer Carbery on May 30 and Nashville Predators they appointed coach to Andrew Brunette the next day. Greg Cronin was hired by the Anaheim Ducks on June 5.
#Ryan #Huska #coach #Calgary #Flames