Craig Hartsburg Returns to the NHL as Associate Coach of Calgary Flames –NHL Update
Craig Hartsburg, a coach of the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) Everett Silvertips and former major league head coach, has officially made a comeback into the National Hockey League (NHL) as an associate coach of Calgary Flames.
The current Flames head coach, Brent Sutter, is a long time friend of Hartsburg, who was Sutter’s assistant coach on Canada's junior men's team which won the gold medal in the 2006 Olympics.
Hartsburg remembers the time when they both were professional hockey players and played together in the 1987 Canada Cup.
"I used to just love his intensity and what he stood for, standing behind the bench when he was in front of m", Hartsburg said on Monday. "I'm really excited about standing next to him on the bench”.
He played 10 seasons in NHL as a defenseman for former Minnesota North Stars, now known as Minnesota Wild, playing a total of 570 games and registering a total of 413 points, including 98 goals and 315 assists.
Hartsburg went on to become the head coach of Chicago Blackhawks, Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators.
His last two seasons with Ducks and Senators were truly disappointing for him as he was fired midway through the season for maintaining a low record, 11-15-3 and 17-24-7, respectively.
Hartsburg made his way back into the minor leagues and joined Everett Silvertips and led them to their best record ever. This eventually led him to thinking about taking another shot at NHL so he left WHL.
"It was offered by them", Hartsburg said. "It wasn't something I asked for, but it was certainly exciting when they said that was the position”.
Flames was unable to make the postseason this time around after having a great boom post All-Star season. It dropped from fifth all the way to ninth position in the extremely competitive Western Conference.
With Hartsburg behind the benches, Calgary Flames hopes to change things around, come next season, which will start in October.
Until then, he will develop team knowledge and prepare for the road ahead of the team in the 2011-12 season.
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