'Thankful For The Opportunity'

STOCKHOLM - It's a work trip.

But it's also all pleasure, too, for Flames coach Ryan Huska, who has been given the opportunity to stand behind Canada's bench as an assistant at the 2025 IIHF World Championship.

"That's the thing," the coach started. "When you catch wind that you might be able to get the opportunity to come, it's a pretty good consolation prize to represent your country in this event. I found out very quickly.

"It's a spectacular tournament."

The European excursion, workload included, came as a result of Huska's Flames fighting, but falling just short, of qualifying for postseason play.

Both Calgary and the St. Louis Blues finished with a claim on the final playoff spot from the Western Conference at 96 points, but a tiebreaker put the latter into the Stanley Cup Playoffs picture, and left the former group with the opportunity to explore other experiences.

Sometimes, you have to make the most of a disappointing result.

That, it turns out, comes in the form of joining Dean Evason's coaching staff, and jumping right back behind the bench.

Huska, to hear MacKenzie Weegar call it, is doing just that.

"'Husk' is having a blast," said Weegar, currently battling on the blue in search of his second Worlds gold with Canada after a first-place finish in 2023 in Finland. "I think he's learning a lot. I think he's learning a lot not just from the coaching staff, but the quality of players here and how they play and how they see the game.

"We've talked about it.

"I went up to him and I said, 'Pretty fun watching this group, hey?' And he's sitting back there like, 'Sometimes I just sit back... I can't believe some of the plays that these guys make.' He's taking it in and I'm sure he's learning a lot about how to handle the big dogs and how to handle the group of guys here.

"I'm sure he's gaining a lot from this experience, and I'm happy to be here with him."

The rest of the Canadians can make that same claim, too.

With Huska's help, the home side is a perfect 5-0 through five round-robin friendlies, a tie atop the Group A standings with Rasmus Andersson, Mikael Backlund, and the host Swedish squad.

"He has a tremendous calming effect, professionalism," detailed Evason, who has coached opposite Calgary's bench boss at both the AHL and NHL levels, and whose roots together run back through Kamloops.

"A hard-working, detailed, structured group. I've seen that through what he's done. He handles our penalty kill plus our offensive-zone entries, works with the forwards on some faceoff stuff. He does a good job in the details that he coaches with.

"He brings a professionalism and a calmness and a team-first mentality to our coaching staff."

The same approach he has back in Calgary.

Though, some things might be tweaked back with the Flames family upon his return.

The experience, after all, is doing "so many great things" for Huska, now.

So many great things that'll help him guide his Calgary club down the road, too.

"My role is way different here," Huska detailed. "I get to stand on the bench and watch how Dean runs a bench. I get to watch how Sidney Crosby is with his teammates... all the little things in practice to watching him in meetings and how he pays attention to every little detail that's going on. There are so many things that I'll take out of this.

"I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be here because of the experiences I'll be able to bring back.

"I love it."