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Report: Calgary hires Bob Hartley as head coach

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In news first reported by Renaud Lavoie of RDS, the Calgary Flames have hired Bob Hartley to become the 15th coach in franchise history.

Hartley, 52, hasn’t coached in the NHL since being fired six games into the 2007-08 season by Atlanta. His resume boasts over 300 career victories, a .579 winning percentage and the 2001 Stanley Cup championship with Colorado.

Most recently, he led the ZSC Lions to the Swiss League championship.

According to Lavoie, Hartley has been in Calgary since Monday (yesterday, we reported he’d twice interview with GM Jay Feaster for the job) so he and the Flames could agree on compensation for his release from ZSC.

With that negotiation now out of the way, Hartley can get to the business of replacing Brent Sutter behind the Flames bench. There’s no shortage of tasks, and chief among them will be deciding who to select at No. 14 in June’s NHL Entry Draft.

It should be noted that Hartley and Feaster have an incredibly strong relationship. The pair worked together with the Hersey Bears team that won the 1997 Calder Cup and, according to the Minnesota Tribune’s Mike Russo, Hartley is also the godfather of Feaster’s youngest son, Ryan.

As for the ripple effect -- Hartley was heavily rumored to be going to Montreal, so it whittles the Canadiens’ candidate list down by one. Expect to hear plenty of scuttlebutt around Marc Crawford and Michel Therrien in the coming days...