Flames coach Darryl Sutter out of line in comments on rookie Jakob Pelletier

Multiple former NHL players, including Georges Laraque and Maxim Lapierre, subsequently called out Sutter for his “disrespectful” treatment of the young prospect. McKenna became the latest to chime in on Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: The snark with which Darryl Sutter delivers this, some would say, “Oh, it’s his classic schtick. He’s someone that doesn’t love rookies, and it takes a while to warm up to young players in this league.” What number is he? This is your first-round pick that was tearing up the AHL, that had clearly deserved a promotion, that you then sat as a healthy scratch for his first 13 days in the NHL before finally putting him in the lineup, and that’s the way you treat him? Your thoughts, Mike.

Mike McKenna: Players really don’t like this type of thing. And I’ll tell you what, I had a person reach out to me who had a similar experience years ago in his first NHL game. He had flown in the day before and the team hadn’t given him any indication whether he was gonna play or not. So, he’s got his family calling him, asking, “Are you in the lineup? We need to book airfare. We need to get there, we want to see this.” And he kept saying, “I don’t think I’m probably going to play, so I don’t know, I don’t know.” The night before, nothing. Morning skate, nothing. Did the coaches even talk to him? Sutter didn’t talk to him, didn’t even make eye contact, anything. None of the other coaches even said anything about him playing or not. It finally took a teammate telling him he was in the lineup and, by that point, it was too late for his parents to attend his first NHL game.

Darryl’s as old-school as they get. Your coach doesn’t have to be your best friend. But you don’t forget these things. The person who talked to me just couldn’t stand that. These are important moments. The dismissiveness toward Pelletier, to me, it comes across as Sutter thinks it’s a joke.