Former Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving, like all managers, had strengths and weaknesses. A consistent weakness was poor choices for coaches. Ask the Toronto Maple Leafs, who not only fired Treliving this spring but also his one-and-only coaching hire, Craig Berube, too.
Treliving got more runway in Calgary, where ownership actually wanted to keep him! He worked with five coaches in his nine years with the Flames.
Where are they now?
Bob Hartley
Previous GM Jay Feaster hired Hartley, and the newly arrived Treliving kept him on. He had a reputation for being tough on his players and rode them to one game below .500, absolute mid. He won the Jack Adams Award in 2015 when the Flames made it to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
No insiders ever mentioned his name for NHL jobs post-Flames. He was rumoured for the Colorado Avalanche in 2016. They had just let go of Patrick Roy, but this was just fan chatter. He went to coach in the KHL, winning Coach of the Year and two championships, including one just this past 2025–2026 season, upon which he announced his retirement.
Flames record: 2012–2016 (294 games: 134–135–25)
Prospects of a new NHL job: 0%. Nobody will be coaxing him to come out of retirement.
Glen Gulutzan
Unlike everyone else on this list, Gulutzan was and has been gainfully employed in the NHL since 2011. His most memorable moment in Calgary was swinging his stick into the stands during a frustrating practice. Safe to say, he did not gel with the team very well.
After Calgary, he became an assistant coach for the Edmonton Oilers, where he ran the power play into record-setting numbers, though how much credit he deserves for this is debatable. Last summer, he returned to where he started in 2011: head coaching the Dallas Stars.
Flames record: 2016–2018 (164 games: 82–68–14)
Prospects of a new NHL job: 70%. NHL coaching is like musical chairs: sometimes a guy is thrown out of the game, but mostly people just change seats. Other clubs will value his experience.
Bill Peters
In reaction to Gulutzan’s perceived softness, Treliving went back to a tough taskmaster. Despite a great record, Peters resigned in November 2019 when former NHL player Akim Aliu accused him of hurling racial slurs, and other players accused him of physical abuse.
Disgraced, he crossed the ocean and coached a year in the KHL, came back for two years in the WHL, and is currently coaching in the DEL (Germany’s top league).
The NHL ran a formal investigation into the allegations against Peters. While the NHL never banned him, there are no reports of any team having considered him since his resignation.
Flames record: 2018–2019 (110 games: 62–37–11)
Prospects of a new NHL job: 0%. No team in their right mind would go near him, and neither will the Edmonton Oilers, who just hired Mike Babcock.
Geoff Ward
In the frenzy of the Bill Peters drama, the Flames promoted Associate Coach Geoff Ward to interim head coach for the remainder of that 2019 season. He rode the momentum of a good Flames season and secured the position of permanent head coach the following year. That’s when it became clear he was in over his head and was fired just 24 games into the season.
He landed a job the following season as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks but re-signed after just one year for personal reasons. Since 2022–23, he’s been a head coach in the Swiss National League to great results: a first-place finish, a final appearance, and two Coach of the Year awards.
Flames record: 2019–2021 (66 games: 35–26–5)
Prospects of a new NHL job: 5%. It’s doubtful he’ll be offered a head coaching job, but with his great results in Switzerland and a long resume of assistant jobs with the Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, and the Ducks, teams could kick tires for an assistant job. Though reports are he’s very content with his current head coaching gig.
Darryl Sutter
At this point in Treliving’s tenure, with all the failed coaches above, it was heavily rumoured but never confirmed that Sutter’s hire was mandated by Flames ownership. This was Sutter’s second stint coaching the Flames. His first run famously included a run to the 2004 Stanley Cup Final.
In his first full season, he coached the Flames to 111 points (their best record since the Cup-winning 1988–89 team) and won the Jack Adams Award. A year later, the Flames players quit on the demanding coach. They fell out of the playoffs, and Sutter was fired.
Since his departure, he returned to farming and ranching. He co-authored his biography, The Code of the West: Lessons From the Ranch and the Rink, which will be released on October 13th, 2026.
Flames record: 2021–2023 (194 games: 103–63–28)
Prospects of a new NHL job: 99%. He could get a job if he wants one, but he seems content on the farm.
Conclusion
Of the five coaches Brad Treliving worked with in Calgary, they all Flame-d out but one. Treliving vacated the GM position on April 17, 2023. Two weeks later, Sutter was fired as the organization cleaned the slate.
On May 23, 2023, the Flames promoted Treliving’s assistant, Craig Conroy, to GM, who hired Ryan Huska to coach. In October 2025, Conroy signed Huska to a two-year contract extension. The two are currently still working together.
