Though his time with the Flames may be over, Glen Gulutzan believes the future is very bright in Calgary.

Gulutzan was fired by the Flames on Tuesday after two seasons with the team. He led the Flames to the playoffs in his first season in Calgary, but fell 11 points short of the postseason this year. The Flames held the final wild-card spot in late February, but managed only two victories in their final 11 games to fall out of the race.

Despite the poor finish, Gulutzan told the Calgary Sun he believes the Flames are primed for success moving forward and he wishes he could be a part of it.

“The only real regret for me is that I think it’s a great group, there’s great people here, it’s a great city and now I’m not going to be a part of a team moving forward that I think is going to be a real strong team in the years to come,” Gulutzan said.

“Their best players are their young players, and I think that’s a good recipe. I think Tre [general manager Brad Treliving] has done a heck of a job, to be honest with you, with managing the cap. So I think they’re going to be poised for success for a long time here. And that’s something you want to be a part of, but now you’re not going to...

“You sacrifice a lot of hours, a lot of family time, and I think that’s what every hockey player, every hockey coach, wants is to be a part of something that’s bigger than himself. And now you’re not going to be a part of it. So all that labour, you don’t get to see the fruits of it. But that’s the nature of our game, that’s the nature of our business.”

Treliving said after Gulutzan was let go that the team relied too much on their top players under Gulutzan this season. Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk all had career years, but Treliving said he didn't believe Gulutzan was the right leader for the team.

"Personality didn't have a whole lot to do with this decision," Treliving said on Tuesday. "I don't necessarily think our group is a difficult group to coach. There's challenges with every group.

"By no means is today's decision letting anyone off the hook. Ultimately you have success when your players perform well. I felt in order to get us to that level, we had to make this decision."

Gulutzan, noting his success in his first season, said he was caught off guard by the team's decision to fire him.

“I was a bit surprised (by the decision), but I have a real good connection with Tre so I obviously knew there were some unhappy people,” he said. “I think we did a really good job in our first season here. I don’t know if we could have done a much better job than what we did. Playoffs didn’t go the way we wanted (in 2017), but we came from 77 to 94 points and I think we changed the whole feel of how this team should play and what style they should play moving forward.

“Then, obviously, the second year didn’t go the way we wanted. There were a lot higher expectations and I think I said at some point, we have to manage those. I think even myself had to manage them a little bit better.

“And at the end of the day, we didn’t get the job done.”

Gulutzan said multiple Flames players have reached out to him to apologize for their role in his release.