Craig Hartsburg’s accomplishments in two seasons as head coach of the Everett Silvertips were not unnoticed around the Western Hockey League, and they certainly did not go unnoticed by teams in the National Hockey League.
And in recent weeks some of those NHL teams came calling.
According to Silvertips vice president and general manager Doug Soetaert, two NHL teams wanted to hire Hartsburg as an assistant coach after the 2009-10 season. Hartsburg opted to stay in Everett, but the number of suitors went up to three this spring and apparently one of the recent offers was too tempting to pass up.
Multiple media reports from Canada are indicating that Hartsburg, who resigned his Silvertips job on Sunday, will become an assistant coach for the NHL’s Calgary Flames. An official announcement is expected this week, and perhaps as soon as today.
“Craig Hartsburg is a top candidate for a coaching position with the Flames,” Peter Hanlon, Calgary’s vice-president of communications, told the Calgary Herald newspaper for a story published Friday. “However, there’s work to be done before any official announcement.”
Soetaert would not confirm Hartsburg’s NHL destination, but said the coach’s resignation was not unexpected.
“When you have a coach with Craig’s credentials and experience, it was bound to happen at some point,” Soetaert said. “It was obviously a very, very difficult situation for him. He really liked Everett and he really liked coaching our team.
“I thought maybe we’d have him for one more year, but obviously teams were coming after him extremely hard. … For a guy with his status, his credentials and his experience, there are always NHL teams looking to add people of that nature. And obviously there was a team that was very interested in him.”
The 51-year-old Hartsburg, who was unavailable for comment on Sunday night, arrived in Everett two years ago having been an NHL head coach for 491 games with Chicago, Anaheim and Ottawa between 1995 and 2009.
He had an immediate impact with the Silvertips, turning around a team that had gone 27-36-7-2 the previous season and guiding it to a 46-21-3-2 mark.
Everett was not quite so successful this past season, slipping to a 28-33-7-4 record. But that decline was no doubt due in part to Hartsburg’s prolonged absence from the team. On Nov. 3 he underwent open-heart surgery to repair an ascending aortic aneurysm, and he missed 24 games between Oct. 20 and Dec. 28.
Being without the head coach for over two months “kind of threw us for a little bit of a loop,” Soetaert said. Still, he added, during Hartsburg’s two seasons “I think he did a great job.”
Over the next few weeks, Soetaert will interview candidates to become the team’s fourth head coach after Kevin Constantine, John Becanic and Hartsburg. The new coach will definitely be someone from outside the organization, Soetaert said, and may or may not be someone with NHL head coaching experience, which both Constantine and Hartsburg had.
“This rumor of Craig moving out has probably been out there for about two weeks now,” Soetaert said, “and people have contacted me. I’ve kind of got a list together in my head of what I’m going to do. I’m going to contact some coaches that are available and I’m hoping to have somebody in place (by) early July.”
Soetaert wants a three-year commitment from Hartsburg’s replacement because “I’m not going to lose a coach after a year or two,” he said. “The reason is, we have a real solid nucleus of young players coming along. We’ve gone through a rebuilding mode, we’ve traded some players, got some draft picks … and we’ve replenished our system. So I’m going to need a coach that’s committed for at least a three-year process.
“A lot of coaches want to coach at the highest level, and some are interested in coming here. … So we’re going to meet with people and it’ll be a time-consuming exercise.”
Hartsburg’s son, Chris Hartsburg, spent last season as a Silvertips assistant and is expected to return in 2011-12.
“He’s very committed,” Soetaert said of Chris Hartsburg. “He’s a good hockey man and we’re happy to have him staying on with us, that’s for sure.”
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