Flames confirm a number of coaching changes on Sunday.

The Calgary Flames have confirmed a series of coaching changes on Sunday, all of which stem from a rather unfortunate situation.

Earlier this month, the Flames announced that assistant coach Brad Larsen would be stepping away from the team for an indefinite period of time to deal with a family matter and it would now appear that Larsen may not be back for quite some time. The Flames have moved to replace Larsen on their coaching staff a little less than two weeks after the initial announcement was made.

Today the Flames announced that Calgary Wranglers head coach Trent Cull has been promoted up from the American Hockey League and will now join the coaching staff of Flames head coach Ryan Huska behind the bench for the foreseeable future.

That of course has in turn left the Wranglers without a head coach, a role that will now be taken by Wranglers assistant coach Joe Cirella. Cirella has been named the interim head coach of the Wranglers where he will be joined by assistants Martin Gelinas and Brett Sutter moving forward.

Cirella, a former first round pick in the National Hockey League, has a wealth of professional hockey experience under his belt with a 828 game career in the NHL and has spent several years coaching in the NHL, OHL and AHL as well. Cirella however has never been a head coach at any level so this will mark a big opportunity for him in his coaching career.

The Flames have also released a statement in conjunction with this announcement:

"Our priority is to provide Brad and his family with continued support during this period when they need it most,” said Flames General Manager Craig Conroy in a statement on the Flames official website. "While Brad remains with his family, we have made these interim adjustments to our coaching staff to ensure our team and development program have the resources required to excel. Our organizational bench strength allows us to confidently make these moves without interruption to performance."

I wish all of the coaches the best of luck on their promotions and in their new challenges, but most important of all I would like to wish Larsen and his family all the best moving forward. Hopefully we can see Larsen back behind an NHL bench sooner rather than later.