{"id":196970,"date":"2025-09-17T18:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/196970\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T18:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T18:07:16","slug":"changes-that-took-place-in-the-calgary-flames-hockey-operations-department-ahead-of-the-2025-26-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/196970\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes that took place in the Calgary Flames hockey operations department ahead of the 2025-26 season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are always a number of changes to organizations in the summer. This summer, the Flames made a change to their Assistant GM ranks, as well as multiple changes to their coaching staff in both the NHL and AHL levels. The Flames also added to their development, scouting, and data\/analytics departments. Let\u2019s detail the changes to the Flames organization below.<\/p>\n<p>Promotions \/ Role Changes<\/p>\n<p>Peter Hanlon \u2013 Hanlon was promoted to Assistant General Manager after previously serving as the Vice President of Communications with the Flames, a role he\u2019s held since the 1997\u201398 season.<\/p>\n<p>Sean Kelso \u2013 In a subsequent move, Kelso was promoted to Vice President of Communications. Kelso was previously the Director of Media Relations with the club.<\/p>\n<p>Trent Cull \u2013 Cull has been promoted to assistant coach with the Flames. He began as <a href=\"https:\/\/thewincolumn.ca\/2023\/07\/18\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-calgary-wranglers-naming-trent-cull-as-their-new-head-coach\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Head Coach of the Calgary Wranglers for the 2023\u201324 season<\/a> before becoming an Interim Assistant Coach with the Flames following Brad Larsen\u2019s departure for family reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Brett Sutter \u2013 Sutter has been promoted to head coach of the Calgary Wranglers. He served as an assistant coach with the Calgary Wranglers last season. Sutter was the captain of the Calgary Wranglers in the 2022\u201323 and 2023\u201324 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Stajan \u2013 Stajan joined the Flames and Wranglers last season as a skills consultant. He was previously an assistant coach with the Calgary Hitmen. The former Flame played nine seasons with the team. <\/p>\n<p>Alex Robson \u2013 Robson was promoted to Director of Engineering, Hockey Analytics. Robson was previously a Data Engineer. <\/p>\n<p>Individuals who have joined the organization<\/p>\n<p>Dave Lowry \u2013 Lowry joined the Flames as an Assistant Coach a few weeks ago, following Brad Larsen\u2019s departure. Calgary is a familiar spot for Lowry. He captained the Flames in the early 2000s as a player. After he finished his NHL career, Lowry joined the Calgary Hitmen as an assistant coach. He would then move into the head coaching role of the Hitmen, and then move to be an assistant with the Flames. After subsequent stops with the Victoria Royals, the Los Angeles Kings, Brandon Wheat Kings, Winnipeg Jets, and, most recently, the Seattle Kraken, Lowry returns to Calgary.<\/p>\n<p>Brent Seabrook \u2013 The three-time Stanley Cup champion joined the Flames as part of the Player Development staff. He started working with the Flames ahead of development camp, where he was working with the defensive prospects. Alongside Michael Stone, the team now has two former NHL defencemen working in player development.<\/p>\n<p>Joby Messier \u2013 Messier joined the Flames organization in-season. He\u2019s focused on the NCAA. Messier previously served as an Amateur Scout with the Carolina Hurricanes from 2018\u201319 through the 2020\u201321 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Etienne Rouleau \u2013 Rouleau joined the organization this past season as a Data Analyst in their Data\/Analytics department. Previously, Rouleau was a Scout &amp; Coordinator with the University of Moncton in USports from the 2017\u201318 thru the 2021\u201322 seasons. He  also served as a Scout &amp; Analytics Coordinator with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in the QMJHL in the 2018\u201319 and 2019\u201320 seasons. Rouleau then moved on to the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL as a Scout &amp; Analytics Coordinator from the 2020\u201321 to the 2023\u201324 season, before being promoted as the Director of Analytics with the Wildcats in 2024\u201325.<\/p>\n<p>Individuals who have left the organization<\/p>\n<p>Dan Lambert \u2013 Lambert was released from the final year of his contract as an assistant coach following the promotion of Trent Cull. <\/p>\n<p>Brad Larsen \u2013 Larsen joined the Flames as an assistant coach before the 2024\u201325 season. Larsen left the club midway through the season to deal with a family matter. The Flames announced that Larsen would not be returning to the bench. We wish him and his family the best.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are always a number of changes to organizations in the summer. This summer, the Flames made a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[16357,895,26,5294,896,33563,8960,5,2042,32404,4,15314,33564,11513],"class_list":{"0":"post-196970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-brett-sutter","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-calgary-flames","11":"tag-calgaryflames","12":"tag-flames","13":"tag-front-office-changes","14":"tag-front-office","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-hockey-operations","17":"tag-management","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-peter-hanlon","20":"tag-sean-kelso","21":"tag-trent-cull"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115220974388369227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}