Report: Ryan Huska favorite for Calgary Flames head coach job

During intermission of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that Ryan Huska is the favorite to be named the next head coach of the Calgary Flames following the departure of Darryl Sutter.

Friedman said, “So the Calgary Flames are one of two teams right now without a head coach. The New York Rangers are the other. Nothing’s done until it’s done, but the word is that Ryan Huska, who served as an assistant coach for the Flames for the past five seasons, is the leading contender. But nothing is done until it is done.

Huska has been an assistant coach with the Flames since 2018-19 and is highly respected in the Flames system. Previously, he was head coach of the Adirondack Flames/Stockton Thunder, the Flames’ affiliates in the American Hockey League, where he posted a career record of 135-118-27. He helped develop Flames prospects and, as an assistant to the Flames, he oversaw the penalty kill.

Prior to his AHL/NHL tenure, Huska served as head coach of the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League, where he won the WHL championship in 2008-09 after leading the Rockets to a record of 47-21-4. He would then lead the Rockets to consecutive 50-win seasons in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

As a player, Huska won three WHL championships and three Memorial Cups with the Kamloops Blazers in their historic runs in 1992, 1994 and 1995. Huska is one of the few players to have won three Memorial Cups during of his major junior career. He was drafted in the third round of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, but spent most of his short IHL playing career with the Indianapolis Ice. He also played in the AHL with the Lowell Lock Monsters and the Springfield Falcons.