'NEEDED A CHANGE'

In a business measured solely on wins and championship hustle, falling short of that goal often leads to change.

Here, when conducting his analysis of the season that was, President of Hockey Ops and Interim GM Don Maloney soon realized that a change in leadership was required.

So, the team announced Monday that head coach Darryl Sutter has relived of his duties.

They will get a new coach.

New voice.

New direction for an organization hellbent on flipping the script.

"I think in today's world, he's a firm coach, a hard coach, a demanding coach - (and) there's a shelf life to that type of coaching," said Maloney, who not only spoke with the players and other members of the Flames coaching staff, but "prominent agents that represent key players" on the roster to get their take on team's direction.

"Looking at the league today and tenure of coaches, you realize that after two, three, four years ... it's very rare that that after that time period, generally - unless you have winning - changes are made.

"I do feel that this is the best way for us to proceed as a club and it's an exciting time, because we have a good team and good players."

Sutter, 64, was brought back into the fold in the spring of 2021, guiding the Flames to a 103-63-28 record that included a Jack Adams Award-winning - and Pacific Division title-clinching - 50-21-11 mark last year. However, Sutter was unable to tap into that same magic this past campaign, with a number of players underachieving relative to their career averages, and the team missing the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

While Maloney wouldn't divulge any specifics regarding the conversations he had with players at their exit meetings, he did say that the group - to a man - was "very, very frustrated" with how the season went. That was a large part of the audit, with Maloney banking on that internal intel - as well as a swath of outside perspectives - to get a broad view of what went wrong.

And more importantly, how to cure it moving forward.

"Agents you speak to, they have influence on players staying here (and) attracting new players. They have lots of voices," Maloney said. "You try and touch base with everybody and say, 'OK, what's your take on it? What's your read on it? What do you think has happened here with your client or other clients?' That's why it's taken the two weeks that it's taken."

With the Sutter style having "expired" with the Flames, one of the earliest changes under a new boss could be with how the team integrates young players and prospects into the lineup. Maloney says it's key to inject that "speed, energy and enthusiasm" over the course of an 82-game grind, as saw with some of the early returns with 2019 first-rounder Jakob Pelletier this year.

Times are changing - and the modern-day athlete is no longer a silent observer hoping to play spot duty.

"I do think the younger players now - at 18 - not only do they think they should be in the NHL, a lot of them can play in the NHL at a younger age," Maloney said. "They've been groomed, they've been trained... Everybody has their own personal trainers and nutrionalists and masseuse. They don't come into this league anymore wide-eyed and say, 'Oh my gosh, I'm in over my head.' They expect to get here and play.

"I do think it's a different world in that respect. And I do think we have an older, experienced team now.

"We could use a little more youth and energy in our lineup. You look around the league, you have to have young players on entry level contracts - that are not just putting in six or seven minutes - that can play meaningful minutes to have any kind of success."

Now, the search is on for a new general manager, who will ultimately have the biggest say in who will be named the 19th head coach in franchise history.

It's hard to fathom an off-season having more significance after the rollercoaster that was last year.

But here we are with another franchise-defining summer on tap.

"The manager has the vision at how we need to play to be a champion and what we need to be a champion," Maloney said. "Then, it obviously comes down to finding the coach that's going to fit that vision.

"You have to look at our personnel. Who we have. I still think that with our group, we're in a window here that we can win something. This isn't a team that's going to start selling off assets - at least, in my opinion. I think we have a good group here. We certainly feel like we have enough here to be a playoff team. And if we do a good job here in the summer and the fall and the winter, we'll be better positioned to be a playoff team next spring.

"We're in a results business and we've got to stop talking about, 'Oh, if we made the playoffs, we would have been a hard out.' No, we didn't make the playoffs. This team, we want results - and we have the players to do it. And we have good players. We have top players In key positions. So, a new manager and a new coach that can connect to today's player and get this group of Flames and drive them to where we want to be.

"It's an exciting time, though. This is new and everybody likes new.

"Hopefully we make the right choice.

"Which we will."