The Sutter Snub!

For Brent Sutter it was all about timing.
Approached last season to join the New Jersey Devils, Sutter took a pass on the opportunity feeling that the Red Deer Rebels needed him more, and another chance would eventually come down the road when a NHL GM would come knocking on his door, asking if he was interested.
Now that he's the main man in New Jersey, will Sutter retain the same assistant coaching staff that the Devils had last season? I would be surprised if he wouldn't look for his own staff, considering Devils assistant coach John McLean was rumored as a potential candidate before Sutter's name came out of no where to take on the head coaching duties with the Devils. I say Sutter's name came out of no where, because the owner of the Red Deer Rebels appeared content in staying in the junior game, and playing the role of owner, gm and coach of his enterprise.
But now that Sutter is in the NHL, he will want to surround himself with his kind of people, those he can trust and take the same type of approach to the game as he does. If he intends on picking his own coaching staff, Marc Habscheid surely has to be on his radar.

When it comes to my encounters with Brent Sutter over the years , I can count them on one hand.
What I remember most was his unwillingness to talk to our radio broadcast crew before games during the WHL final in 2003. Sutter would avoid me like the plague, sending out assistant Dallas Gaume to do his dirty work. Nothing against Gaume - he is a former Swift Current Bronco
by the way - but people want to hear from the opposition head coach, and let's face it Sutter is a pretty big deal. I wanted the 'big deal' on my broadcast!
I thought the best way to handle the 'Sutter snub' was to talk to the league about my problem. One game later, Brent was available to me, but only for pre-game comments in games played in Kelowna.
I took what I could get!
Brent Sutter didn't like to play by other people's rules, only his own. He did just that at the WHL level, and likely spelled it out to Devils GM Lou Lamoriello, before committing to taking the head coaching duties with the Devils hockey club.