Wranglers bench boss Trent Cull did an ‘amazing’ job joining the Flames’ staff on an interim basis

As head coach of the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers, Trent Cull spent a season and a half preaching to the Calgary Flames’ farmhands to be ready for their opportunities. What fans of the Flames learned this season is that Cull practices what he preaches.

In 2022-23, Cull joined Bruce Boudreau’s staff as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks, his first opportunity on an NHL bench. The season didn’t go well, with Boudreau – along with Cull – being dismissed by January.

Cull was hired as the Wranglers’ head coach prior to the 2023-24 season and returned for his second season with the Flames’ farm team in the fall. Flames assistant coach Brad Larsen was granted leave of absence on Dec. 8 due to family reasons. Cull was named interim replacement on Dec. 22, with the Wranglers boasting a record of 20-9-1 when Cull was called up to the big club.

In his second chance at working on an NHL bench, Cull was given the reins of the Flames’ penalty kill and made some tweaks to the kill’s tactics, “compressing” the group’s coverage and making the chances allowed more “predictable” for the club’s goaltenders – as detailed by Flames head coach Ryan Huska recently. Since Cull joined the Flames’ staff, the penalty kill was 14th in the NHL. Since the 4 Nations Face-Off, they ranked second in the NHL.

On Saturday, due to the uncertainty regarding Larsen’s leave, Flames general manager Craig Conroy couldn’t offer clarity regarding Cull’s future assignment with the Flames, but he did add to the praise for the interim assistant coach.

“Yeah, I mean, I think that’s the hard thing,” said Conroy. “Right now we don’t really know what’s going to happen with Brad Larsen and his situation. So we’re just going to kind of play that. That might still be another month away before we have any kind of answers what might be. But he did – Trent came up and did an amazing job for us. He really did.”

That said, it remains a possibility that Cull could return to his prior posting with the Wranglers next season. That was the role he was originally hired for, and players such as Matt Coronato have praised Cull’s efforts in aiding their development.

“Yeah, that was – you know, if everything – if Brad’s able to come back, that was the plan,” said Conroy. “And Trent knew that coming in. You know, but Trent did a very good job, you know, so I was very happy with the penalty kill down the stretch. And, you know, I haven’t had my kind of debrief with Husk yet, but we’re going to probably talk Monday and kind of get all his opinions on the staff and where we’re going to go moving forward.”

We don’t know what the future holds, but Cull definitely made the most of his opportunity to contribute to the Flames’ coaching staff in the 2024-25 season.