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Renney out, Sutter in?
Brent front-runner for Oilers gig

WES GILBERTSON, QMI Agency, May 18 2012

CALGARY – Darryl Sutter is just six wins away from sipping from the Stanley Cup.

Hard to believe, but the news for Calgary Flames fans could get even worse.

Just over a month after clearing out of his office at the Saddledome, Brent Sutter is suddenly the front-runner to become the next head coach of the provincial rival Edmonton Oilers, who officially axed Tom Renney Thursday after weeks of speculation.

While the Battle of Alberta hasn't had the same punch — or as many punch-ups — over the past decade or so, Flames fans are already dreading the idea of the up-and-coming squad from the opposite end of the QEII Highway emerging as a playoff team and eventually a Stanley Cup contender.

Making matters worse, a former Flames skipper will likely be along for the ride.

When his younger brother Brent became unemployed in mid-April, current Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter told reporters “I think (Brent) is a top coach in the National Hockey League, and it may be very well he'll be coaching somewhere else soon, too.”

The smart money says that somewhere else will be Edmonton.

It's certainly not a far-fetched idea, especially when you consider what Sutter's been up to for the past three weeks.

Just days after Sutter and Flames GM Jay Feaster mutually agreed to go separate directions, the 49-year-old accepted an invite from Kevin Lowe to become head coach of Canada's entry at the world hockey championships.

In case you didn't know, Lowe just so happens to be the president of the Oilers.

This isn't exactly six degrees of separation we're talking about. Lowe and Sutter have been hanging out together in Helsinki.

Team Canada made a hasty exit after Thursday's quarterfinal loss to Slovakia, but Sutter has had plenty of time to impress his could-be boss.

It makes sense for both sides.

Sutter, who missed the playoffs in three consecutive seasons at the Saddledome, has a reputation for being an effective teacher of young players. The Oilers have a hat-trick of rising star forwards — Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — and the first-overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

Sutter would like to stay close to home. Rexall Place isn't far for him.

Sutter has time. The Oilers, as of Thursday afternoon, have an opening.

There's been so much smoke, Oilers GM Steve Tambellini was asked about Sutter by name during Thursday's press conference to address Renney's dismissal.

“As far as guys that are candidates, there's going to be a lot of speculation,” Tambellini told reporters in Edmonton. “I know there's been a lot of talk around the world championships and Brent. He's a good coach — there's no doubt about that — but let us go through the process and get the right guy.”

For Feaster, the head coaching search continues. Although there's a growing sentiment that Abbotsford Heat bench boss Troy Ward is the leading candidate, the Flames GM has insisted it's still early, using the analogy he's in the first inning of a baseball game.

Up the road in Edmonton, it might be a home-run.

And Flames fans might not like the outcome.

—–

Sutter right man for Oilers

TERRY JONES, QMI Agency, May 18 2012

HELSINKI – Brent Sutter lost in the quarterfinals at the world hockey championships Thursday afternoon.

Nine hours later – at 1 a.m. in Helsinki – you have to figure he became the next head coach of the Edmonton Oilers.

Tom Renney’s contract, it was announced, was not going to be renewed.

What was never said was that Renney’s not going to be coming back because he didn’t do what he was asked to do in his term with the team. Renney isn’t coming back because he wasn’t viewed as a dynamic coach capable of the inspirational and motivational leadership to take the Edmonton Oilers to the future.

Brent Sutter was here for the past three weeks allegedly auditioning for the job as the next Oilers head coach. While he failed to get Team Canada to the medal round, Sutter illustrated those qualities in dealing with Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Devan Dubnyk and the other young members of the team throughout the tournament.

In watching Sutter closely throughout the tournament I found a man motivated to prove his worth after his departure from the Calgary Flames, somebody who has a real fire in his belly to succeed and somebody who would bring an extra edge to that rivalry.

Brent Sutter is the right man to replace Renney as head coach of the Oilers.

Tambellini was in Helsinki for the round robin and had Oilers’ president of hockey operations and his boss Kevin Lowe on the inside as GM of Team Canada. If this was an audition for the job, despite the loss to Slovakia Thursday, you’d have to say he had a successful audition.

The bottom line is that Renney might have been the perfect coach to take the Oilers through the last two years, with the tremendous patience he showed in the development of Edmonton’s young stars.

“Tom is a thorough guy, a good man, a good coach and did a good job for us,” Tambellini told the press conference in Edmonton after meeting with Renney on his return from Finland.

So then why isn’t he going to be coming back?

All Tambellini had to do is say what the next coach has to bring to the job and that in management’s opinion Renney isn’t that guy.

I think in time Edmonton will look back and believe Renney was the right man for the job these past two years, that he did a wonderful job with Eberle, Taylor Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and others in their training wheels seasons as NHLers.

But he was not the right man to take this team forward. That was the decision. And I believe Tambellini and Lowe had come to that conclusion before Lowe and the Hockey Canada brain trust offered the Team Canada job to Sutter the morning before he went in and by mutual agreement with Flames’ GM Jay Feaster concluded his own term as coach in Calgary.

Why Tambellini couldn’t just spit that out and show some dynamic leadership himself is a condemnation of him in his own role.

“We’re going into a phase with a different level of compete,” was Tambellini’s way of putting it.

The whole handling of Renney’s departure didn’t look good on Tambellini nor did it when came to letting Pat Quinn go well after the season.

It smacked of the brutal public relations which has been a constant throughout Tambellini’s time as general manager.

To wait more than a month after the season to make up his mind and then do the dirty deed with a 5 p.m. press conference the day Canada lost at the world hockey championship on the eve of the Edmonton Oil Kings opening game at the Memorial Cup was not unlike the political strategy of releasing unpopular news late Friday afternoon to minimize play during the news cycle.

With the next hire, it will be four coaches who have worked under Tambellini.

Technically Craig MacTavish resigned, Pat Quinn was removed and Renney wasn’t renewed. But no coach has lasted more than Renney’s two years in Tambellini’s time.

Tambelini hired Quinn and Renney as a tandem, explaining that he had worked with them both in the past and knew exactly what they would bring to the organization.

The next one better be the guy to take the Oilers into the playoffs and then deep into the playoffs or he’ll be Tambellini’s last one.

Of all the coaches available, it’s hard to see a more qualified coach to hire than Brent Sutter.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
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