The Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation brought in Trent Cull to serve as head coach of the Calgary Wranglers.
Cull, 49, has been either a coach or assistant coach for the last 19 seasons. Most recently, he served on Bruce Boudreau’s staff as an assistant before being fired along with Bruce. Mike Yeo and Jason King survived the cull and stayed on with the Canucks.
Prior to his half-season of time in the NHL, Trent served as head coach of the Canucks affiliate — first the Utica Comets and then the Abbotsford Canucks — for five seasons and finished with a coaching record of 161-116-22-10.
Above .500 — but not an incredibly impressive winning percentage. He has a bit more experience in head coaching at the OHL level with the Sudbury Wolves, where he put up a 94-88-11-11 record.
Not a great record across either league as a head coach. Not much success in graduating prospects into the AHL either. Zach MacEwen might be his greatest success story as coach of the Canucks affiliate.
Since the 2016-2017 season, the Canucks only saw the likes of Jonah Gadjovich (inactive), Zach MacEwen (now with Ottawa), Jake Virtanen (of the KHL), and Jayden Chatfield (now with Carolina) are the only players to carve out NHL spots after playing under Cull in the AHL. Although Thatcher Demko did serve as starter for two seasons.
Of the graduated skaters mentioned, none of them earn more than a $800,000.
This doesn’t seem like a great hire based on Trent Cull’s body of work. He hasn’t had a player under 25 finish in the top five in scoring yet over his brief AHL career either.
Will this be a good decision? Time will tell. At the superficial level, it seems like a very middling hire.
Joining Cull on the Wranglers bench will be assistants Joe Cirella and Don Nachbaur, video coach Daniel Johnston and goalie development coach Mackenzie Skapski.
Trevor Neufeld
@Trevor_Neufeld
Stats via eliteprospects.com and theahl.com.