As far as trade deadlines go Brent Sutter has been through a few of them in his time. The most recent one involved a little more drama however as his team, the Red Deer Rebels are hosting the Mastercard Memorial Cup this spring. They have a very good team to boot. In fact, Sutter says this team is better than the Memorial Cup winner from 2001.
So being the host there are plenty of teams who will bring their “A” game to the rink when playing Red Deer so he needed to be careful about tweaking the lineup. Having a good playoff run and be ready for the Memorial Cup at the same time was key.
The game plan for all of this didn’t happen over the last two month though. Sutter said it was being pieced together over the last year and a half.
[quote_left]“We had a plan in place. We looked at different scenarios, areas that we felt we needed to be better at,” said Sutter, the owner, GM and head coach of the Rebels.[/quote_left]
Last year the Rebels acquired Nelson Nogier and Colton Bobyck which stabilized their back end and then before the January 10th trade deadline he made deals to get Jake DeBrusk, Adam Helewka, Taden Rattie and Luke Philp. All great assets but of course in order to get someone of value you need to give up something the other teams want.
Sutter had an ace up his sleeve so that was covered.
“We were able over a period of time, as far as draft picks were concerned, to acquire quite a few picks. So we had extra picks we were able to use,” he said. “But we still weren’t diminishing ourselves on the draft pick side of it too severe and so we can still continue to build of team from within moving forward.”
The hope was to make deals which didn’t break the bank on those picks but Sutter says the reality is the rest of the GM’s in the league are smart hockey people as well so now current players on the Rebels roster became a part of the equation.
“ At the start of the year if you asked me if we were going to move two of our very well respected, character leader-type 20 year olds out of our dressing room, Wyatt Johnson and Preston Kopeck, I would have told you, you were crazy,” he said. “And up until the end of November I would have still told you you were crazy.”
But that’s exactly what happened. Crazy, right?
“It’s never an easy thing to do and I suppose if we weren’t in the situation we’re in as far as being the host of the Memorial Cup, would we have made all four of those deals? Probably not.”
The deals were done however and Sutter says it took time to dot the “I’s” and cross the “t’s”. You need to carefully figure out if one scenario falls through what is plan “B” and so on. When it all played out it was Sutter the Owner speaking loud and clear about the direction for the Rebels.
“The owner was telling the general manager that we’re not going to sell the farm off to host the Memorial Cup for ten days in May and we want to be a franchise that’s very stable. We want to be moving forward and not sitting there doing a five or six year rebuild.”
He said that was something he had to consider and follow through with not only for himself but also the rest of the coaching staff and supporters of the team.
Everyones brain was picked for the most part on what to be done and the due diligence was ramped up to make sure the moves being made were the best ones for the present and the distant future.
“Does it guarantee us that you’re going to get by the first round or second round or third round of playoffs? No, but it does guarantee us we’re a better club today. It does guarantee us that we still have a future here. We can still carry on and move forward here after this season and still be a very competitive team.”
He feels the Rebels will be a proper host during the Memorial Cup tournament as well but admits there’s plenty which can happen until then. However, he’s confident he’s given this team their best chance to succeed and win.
Wearing three hats is something he’s trained himself to do since he took over in 1999 and it’s a skill to be able to remove yourself as a coach when it comes to GM business and be the owner when it comes to the big picture of the franchise.
Sutter says he has to have three mindsets, three different personalities. It’s a method he’s honed over the years and is quite comfortable with these days.
“I know it sounds weird and I know it sounds stupid but it’s true and if I did it any other way I’m failing in every area. I’m failing as an owner. I’m failing as a General Manager and I’m failing as a coach”.
This May when the Rebels host the Memorial Cup we will find out how the owner, G.M. and coach did this year.
