Calgary Flames hire Marc Savard as assistant coach
The Calgary Flames have hired Marc Savard as an assistant coach.
.@TheHockeyNews has learned that Mark Savard has been hired as an assistant coach by the @NHLFlames
He led the Windsor Spitfires to the top seed in the conference both years at the helm and an OHL final.
I wrote about him last month for THN. https://t.co/O5BUrNC1mW
Suspicion of a hiring arose when Savard changed his profile picture on Twitter to a Calgary Flames logo, with many assuming that he would be taking the vacant assistant coach role with the team, and the hiring was confirmed shortly after.
Savard spent the past two seasons as the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires, coaching them to an 88-35-13 record, including a trip to the OHL Finals before losing to the Hamilton Bulldogs in seven games. He also spent a season as an assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues in 2019-20.
Savard spent parts of 13 seasons in the NHL with the New York Rangers, Flames, Atlanta Thrashers, and Boston Bruins, with 207 goals, 499 assists, and 706 points in 807 regular season games, along with 8 goals, 14 assists, and 22 points in 25 playoff games. His career was cut short due to a reckless head shot that he suffered from forward Matt Cooke in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2010-11, resulting in concussions that he was unable to fully recover from.
Savard will oversee the offense and the power play for the Flames in his role. He’ll look to improve a Flames team that was 19th in the league in both goals for per game with 3.15 and power play percentage with 19.8% in 2022-23, and ranked 7th in the league in 5v5 expected goals for per 60 minutes with 2.97 and 15th in PP expected goals for per 60 minutes with 8.33.
Savard joins a significantly changed staff in the Flames organization. Craig Conroy was hired as the new general manager after Brad Treliving stepped down from the role due to his strained relationship with head coach Darryl Sutter, who was then fired a couple weeks later. Ryan Huska was promoted from assistant coach to head coach as a result, with Savard filling in the now-vacant assistant coaching position.