Sutter Leaves NJ Devils, Moving to Calgary?
June 9, 2009 by Jeanne Dupuis
Filed under Calgary Flames, NHL coaches, New Jersey Devils, News
TSN is reporting that Brent Sutter is no longer the coach of the New Jersey Devils and has cited personal and family reasons as the motivation for stepping down. I don’t know if anyone is shocked but I’m a little surprised since he did still have a year left in his contract.
Of course, everyone is wondering if he’s going to be making a move to the recently vacant head coach position with the Calgary Flames since the general manager is his brother, Darryl Sutter. Since he’s breaking his contract, the Flames would have to talk to New Jersey Devils’ GM, Lou Lamoriello, in order to get permission to speak with Brent Sutter.
I don’t know if that is the plan but it could work. I would prefer to see Darryl lead the team but Brent does have playoff experience and since he coached the Devils for just two years and lead them to the post-season both times. They have a decent 97-56-11 record as well. Still, it’s not like he brought his team to the Stanley Cup Finals (like Darryl did) so it might not even be much of an improvement.
I’d still like to see Darryl reclaim his spot behind the bench. I feel that we would see a marked improvement in the performance of goaltender, Miikka Kiprusoff, who seemed to just fall apart with the last two coaches. I will be very interested to see what develops in the next few days.
image: TSN
