He was Glen Gulutzan’s first contact at the big-league level.
In one of his first orders after being hired as head coach of the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers, Gulutzan dialed up the Saddledome offices in hopes of hammering out an affiliation deal with Darryl Sutter, then general manager of the Calgary Flames.
Several years later, still the skipper in Sin City and wondering when he’d get his shot at the next level, he had Sutter on the horn again.
“I was a long time in Las Vegas and I was starting to get some feelers from guys wanting me to go to the American Hockey League,” Gulutzan recalled.