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Darryl Sutter (right) has been named the new head coach of the Calgary Flames (The Canadian Press)
Second stint with team

Flames bring back Darryl Sutter as new head coach

Mar 5, 2021 | 8:03 AM

CALGARY, AB – Darryl Sutter is in, and Geoff Ward is out.

Sutter’s been named the new head coach of the Calgary Flames. This will be his second stint as the bench boss for the NHL club, as he coached the flames from December 2002 to July 2006.

He also served as the team’s General Manager from April 11, 2003 to December 28, 2010.

In his first full season as head coach, Sutter helped lead the Flames to game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004. In his three seasons behind the Calgary bench, he accumulated a record of 107-73-15-15.

Sutter’s been a head coach in the NHL for 18 seasons, with Chicago, San Jose, Calgary (his first run) and Los Angeles. With the LA Kings, he coached from 2011 to 2017 and led the team to a Stanley Cup championship win in both 2012 and 2014.

As a player, Sutter appeared in eight NHL seasons, all with the Chicago Blackhawks from 1979 to 1987. He scored 161 goals and 118 assists for 279 points and 288 penalty minutes in 406 regular season games, in addition to 43 points in 51 playoff games.

Most recently, Sutter was named as an advisor to the Anaheim Ducks coaching staff in July 2019.

Geoff Ward, meanwhile, was named Calgary’s interim coach when Bill Peter’s resigned in November 2019 amid allegations that he had directed racist remarks at a minor league player a decade earlier.

Ward’s ‘interim’ title was removed in September. The Flames have a record of 11-11-2 this season, and will face the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night, March 6.

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