Wranglers Name Trent Cull Head Coach

The Calgary Wranglers announced today that Trent Cull has been named head coach.

"We are pleased to welcome Trent to the Flames family as the head coach of the Calgary Wranglers," said Flames Vice President and Assistant General Manager Brad Pascall. "He provides significant head coaching experience and 19 years behind the bench in total with the OHL, AHL and most recently the NHL. Trent understands the development role of coaching in the AHL and has had success progressing many young players' journey to the NHL."

Cull, 49, began his coaching career as an assistant with the Guelph Storm of the OHL in 2004-05. After two seasons, he was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets as an assistant coach with their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. He would spend the next four seasons behind the bench in Syracuse before accepting his first head coaching position and a return to the OHL with the Sudbury Wolves. He would lead the Wolves to three consecutive playoff appearances before heading back to Syracuse but this time under the direction of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa Bay signed an affiliation with Syracuse in 2012 and Cull was a member of the coaching staff charged with developing the Lightning's top prospects. In 2017, the Crunch won the Eastern Conference Championship and a berth in the Calder Cup Final.

On June 18, 2017, he was named head coach of the Utica Comets by their NHL affiliate, the Vancouver Canucks. He remained with the AHL team when it relocated as the Abbotsford Canucks in 2021 posting a 39-23-5-1 record and led the team to the playoffs in their inaugural campaign. The following season he was promoted to assistant coach with Vancouver under head coach Bruce Boudreau.

"I'm very excited to join the Flames organization and just as excited about making the move to such an amazing city," said Cull. "The immediate success of the Wranglers shows Calgary's passion for hockey and the Flames. We have great young prospects who know there is opportunity here and I look forward to helping them along their path to the NHL."

Cull, a Georgetown, ON native played ten seasons as a defenseman in the AHL and IHL with five teams: St. John's, Houston, Springfield, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and Syracuse. He totaled 107 points and 1,629 penalty minutes over 618 games as a professional.

Trent and his wife Marcia have three sons, Gabe (19), Wyatt (16) and Sam (13). The Cull family will be in Calgary this summer as they prepare to make Calgary their new home.

With today's announcement, the Wranglers' coaching staff is now set for the 2023-24 American Hockey League season. Returning as assistant coaches are Joe Cirella and Don Nachbaur, video coach Daniel Johnston and goalie development coach MacKenzie Skapski.