In advance of the opening of training camp next week, the Calgary Flames officially announced some hockey operations hires on Friday. Some of the hires announces were revealed by their website’s staff directory earlier this off-season, but it’s worth delving into a few of the new faces.
Via the Flames, here’s the list:
Kerry Huffman – Pro Scout
Brad Richardson – Pro Scout
Billy Powers – Pro Scout
Denis Grebeshkov – Amateur Scout
Pierre Lamoureaux – U.S. College Scout
Peter Loubardias – Reserve List Scout
Sandi Kirkland – Executive Assistant to the President of Hockey Operations and General Manager
Rachel Sproule – Executive Assistant to Hockey Operations
Caylin Relkoff – Assistant Strength Coach
Zach McClean – Development Strength Coach
Hendrix Hanes – Development and Data Scientist
Andrew Doty – Video Coordinator
We delved into several of these earlier in the summer, but a trio of new scout hires weren’t previously known: Grebeshkov, Lamoureux and Loubardias.
Grebeshkov is a product of Yaroslavl, Russia, and he played a bunch of pro hockey on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Most notably, he played 234 NHL games with Edmonton, Los Angeles, the NY Islanders and Nashville. Since retiring, he’s worked a bit with Lokomotiv both in the KHL and MHL, and he brings a bunch of knowledge of the Russian and European hockey scenes.
Lamoureux rejoins the Flames after working as an amateur scout with the club back in 2014-15. He focused back then on the NCAA (and the junior feeder leagues), and presumably that’s his role again. He comes from a big hockey family; his dad played in college, his sisters (Jocelyne and Monique) combined for six Olympic medals, and Lamoureux himself played in the WHL and USHL. Since retiring, he’s worked in the NCAA and USHL.
Loubardias joins the Flames after departing Sportsnet 960 The Fan following the 2022-23 season. Loubardias has a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of junior hockey throughout Canada, and he’s as well-connected as anybody in the media game. His role as reserve list scout would involve watching Flames draft picks and evaluating them, and it makes a lot of sense given his passion, experience and background.
The new hires give the Flames – including their scouting directors – four pro scouts, 15 amateur scouts and a reserve list scout on their staff directory.
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