Calgary Flames name Ryan Huska as team's new head coach
CBC
The Calgary Flames have promoted from within for their next head coach.
Ryan Huska takes over the reins after five years as a Flames assistant.
The 47-year-old from Trail, B.C., replaces Darryl Sutter, who was fired in May.
Calgary has changed head coaches five times in eight years.
The hiring of Huska is new general manager Craig Conroy's first major move.
Huska previously coached Calgary's AHL affiliate for four seasons and was behind the bench of the Western Hockey League's Kelowna Rockets for seven.
The Flames went inside the organization to fill both the GM and head coaching positions.
Conroy was assistant to Brad Treliving, who didn't sign an extension with Calgary and was named Toronto Maple Leafs GM on May 31, for nine seasons.
Among Huska's priorities in 2023-24 will be getting more out of Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau.
The Flames signed Kadri as a free agent and Huberdeau arrived in a blockbuster trade with the Florida Panthers last summer that saw Matthew Tkachuk go the other way.
Neither Kadri nor Huberdeau, signed by Calgary for a combined 15 years and $133 million US, meshed well with Sutter, and their production was well below their career highs.
"I completely lost my swagger this year," Huberdeau said at the end of the season.
Huska coached the Rockets to a WHL title in 2009. Mikael Backlund, the longest-serving Flame with 14 seasons in Calgary, played for Huska that year in Kelowna.
Huska was an assistant coach for Canada's entries at the world junior hockey championship in both 2011 and 2012.
About 30 properties in the Fraser Valley are under evacuation alert as the atmospheric river pummeling B.C. increases flood and landslide risks in several parts of the province.
WARNING: This story references allegations of child abuse.
Police say it was a 67-year-old Chatham man who died while scuba diving at the Erieau marina on Wednesday morning.
Enmax declared its lowest dividend, to be paid to the City of Calgary, in four years in its 2025 financial results.
Rilee Willianen says the City of Thunder Bay has received wide-ranging feedback about its plans to create designated encampment sites.
The Ontario government is planning to outlaw sky-high ticket resale prices, according to a news release.
As March break comes to an end, there are lots of fun events happening on the weekend in Waterloo region, Guelph and Wellington County.
Yukon RCMP are renewing their plea for public help in the investigation into an unsolved 2023 double homicide near Mayo.
Thousands of Muslims in Calgary will mark the end of Ramadan by celebrating Eid al-Fitr on Friday, bringing to a close a month of worship, reflection and fasting.
Dozens of people walked through downtown London Wednesday night shining candles in honour of a First Nation’s woman found dead in the city last month, while also calling for increased awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous peoples.
Have tips for navigating telecom customer service? We want to hear from you. Click the “Join the Conversation” button above. On the app? Join here.
The Health Sciences Centre's cardiac catheterization lab has just completed a major upgrade. It’s been a makeover five years in the making, and officials say the waitlist is already improving.
Jamie Cleveland started his Ford Escape like he did every morning outside his Dartmouth, N.S., apartment building.