A little under a month ago, now former head coach of the Calgary Wranglers, Mitch Love, took an offer from the Washington Capitals to become an assistant coach, primarily working with the team’s defense. Under two years of Love, both the Stockton Heat and Wranglers experienced success, finishing as the second-best regular season team in his first year, and the best regular season team in his second year.
The Wranglers have now filled the void left by Love, announcing the hiring of Trent Cull as head coach of the team. Previously, Cull had served as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks under Bruce Boudreau and was fired during the season as the team transitioned to the regime of Rick Tocchet.
Cull brings extensive experience both at the OHL and the AHL level. After retiring as a player after the 2003-04 season with the Syracuse Crunch, Cull joined the Guelph Storm as an assistant coach for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. Although both of those years were meant to be rebuilding ones for the Storm, they made the playoffs twice, being eliminated by the London Knights in both instances.
After his time with the Storm, Cull signed on with his previous team, joining Syracuse as an assistant coach for the next four seasons. At that time, the team was affiliated with the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets and unfortunately did not experience much success with Cull on the bench. In three of Cull’s four seasons with the team, they only qualified for the playoffs once, losing in the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs to the Toronto Marlies in 2008.
Finally, Cull got his first shot as head coach, becoming the 27th head coach in franchise history. Coaching 204 regular season games with the Wolves, he ended with a record of 94-88-11-11, making the postseason in all three seasons. The postseason was not as kind to Cull and the Wolves, as the team failed to progress past the conference semi-finals in each season. After three seasons with the Wolves, Cull once again re-joined the Crunch, serving the team as an assistant coach until the 2017-17 AHL season.
With his last stop before joining the Wranglers, Cull was hired as head coach of the Utica Comets, replacing Travis Green behind the bench for the 2017-18 AHL season. Cull coached four seasons in Utica, and one season with the Abbotsford Canucks posting a total record of 161-116-22-10, once again failing to reach deep into the playoffs.
Cull will have big shoes to fill coming to the Wranglers at the start of the 2023-24 AHL season. Once again, the team had experienced tremendous regular-season success under Love but did not live up to expectations during the playoffs. Since the 2015-16 season, the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames has only been able to reach the AHL’s Conference Finals once, coming during the 2021-22 season.
Oh Conroy what are you doing? Take it from a long-suffering Canucks fan, you don’t want Cull anywhere near your prospects. Incompetence is what you’ll get.