Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Staying flexible is always a key requirement in the AHL.
Even if you have the best record in the league.
The Calgary Wranglers got that reminder last week when they lost their coach Trent Cull to parent Flame.
With Brad Larsen given a personal leave for family reasons, Cull has been named an interim assistant coach with the NHL club “for the foreseeable future.” Joe Cirellain his seventh season as an assistant with Calgary’s AHL team, he has taken over as the Wranglers’ interim head coach. And to move around, Martin Gelinas he moves from the development staff to fill in as an assistant to Cirella on the side Brett Sutter.
The Wranglers are the third AHL team to undergo a head coaching change this season, following Utica and Rockford.
In addition to the coaching shuffle, Calgary is without a defenseman Jonathan Aspirotplaying for the Canadian National Team in the Spengler Cup tournament in Switzerland, when he went forward Walker Duehr again Jakob Pelletier they were recalled by the Flames coming off the Christmas break.
At 20-9-1-0, Calgary has a league-best 41 points with a .683 hitting percentage second only to Toronto (16-5-2-3, .712). But the Wranglers hit the first upset of their schedule this season, dropping four of their last five games before the holiday. Last Sunday’s 3-0 loss at Henderson was the first time the Wranglers have been shut out this season, and the Silver Knights are now the only visiting AHL team to win twice at the Scotiabank Saddledome this season.
Fortunately for the Wranglers, the long break allowed them to regroup; they do not continue their schedule until Monday, when Abbotsford comes to town. A matchup with the rival Canucks should ease any post-holiday rust.
It will also be a head coach for the 61-year-old Cirella, who has been an assistant in the AHL, NHL and Ontario Hockey League for 23 seasons. Before that, he was the fifth overall pick in the 1981 NHL Draft and went on to play 828 games as a defenseman in 15 NHL seasons.
“With Trent stepping up, it’s a matter of helping the organization in any way possible,” Cirella told WranglersTV after Sunday’s game.
Cirella’s entry into the Cull should ensure a sense of familiarity for the Wranglers. In his seven seasons, the Wranglers and Stockton Heat have been very productive in developing Flames talent, with the likes of Dustin Wolf, Oliver Kylington, Matt Coronato, Ryan Lomberg, Martin Pospisil, Andrew Mangiapane, Justin Kirkland again Connor Zary completing the NHL course.
“Hopefully we can continue to develop the kids like we’ve been doing,” Cirella said, “and make them better players for our parent team.”
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
