Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Staying flexible is always a key requirement in the AHL.
Even if you’ve got one of the best records in the league.
The Calgary Wranglers got that reminder last week when they lost head coach Trent Cull to the parent Flames.
With Brad Larsen being granted personal leave due to family reasons, Cull was named an interim assistant coach with the NHL club “for the foreseeable future.” Joe Cirella, in his seventh season as an assistant for Calgary’s AHL affiliate, has taken over as the Wranglers’ interim head coach. And to round out the moves, Martin Gelinas is shifting from the development staff to fill in as an assistant to Cirella alongside Brett Sutter.
The Wranglers are the third AHL team to face a head-coaching change this season, following Utica and Rockford.
In addition to the coaching shuffle, Calgary is without defenseman Jonathan Aspirot, who is playing for the Canadian National Team at the Spengler Cup tournament in Switzerland, while forwards Walker Duehr and Jakob Pelletier were recalled by the Flames coming out of the Christmas break.
At 20-9-1-0, Calgary has a league-best 41 points with a .683 points percentage second only to Toronto’s (16-5-2-3, .712). But the Wranglers have hit the first bit of turbulence in their schedule this season, dropping four of their last five games before the holiday. Last Sunday’s 3-0 loss to last-place Henderson was the first time that the Wranglers have been shut out this season, and the Silver Knights are now the lone visiting AHL team to have won twice at Scotiabank Saddledome this season.
Fortunately for the Wranglers, the long break allowed them a bit of time to reset; they don’t resume their schedule until Monday, when Abbotsford comes to town. A match-up with the archrival Canucks should mitigate any post-holiday rust.
It will also be the head coaching debut of 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 across 15 NHL seasons.
“With Trent going up, it’s just a matter of helping out the organization any way we can,” Cirella told WranglersTV after Sunday’s game.
Having Cirella step in for Cull should ensure a sense of familiarity for the Wranglers. Over his seven seasons, the Wranglers and the Stockton Heat have been very productive in developing talent for the Flames, with the likes of Dustin Wolf, Oliver Kylington, Matt Coronato, Ryan Lomberg, Martin Pospisil, Andrew Mangiapane, Justin Kirkland and Connor Zary graduating to the NHL.
“Hopefully we can continue to develop the kids like we have been,” Cirella said, “and make them better players for our parent club.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.