The Calgary Flames will name Glen Gulutzan head coach Friday, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reports.

The Flames have called a news conference at which it's expected Gulutzan will be introduced.

The Vancouver Canucks assistant coach was reportedly the favorite to land the Flames' job. He was hired as a Canucks assistant in the summer of 2013 after being dismissed as head coach of the Dallas Stars.

Gulutzan went 64-57-9 in two seasons with Dallas, failing to qualify for the playoffs in both campaigns.

The Flames fired former head coach Bob Hartley in May, one season after he received the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top head coach.

Hartley spent four years behind Calgary's bench and was inherited by Flames general manager Brad Treliving, who was hired in the spring of 2014.

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Turns out the AHL's Lake Erie Monsters weren't the only champions in the building.

Evgeni Malkin showed up to watch Game 6 of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday night.

The Pittsburgh Penguins forward had an amusing way of showing support for Cavaliers center and fellow Russian Timofey Mozgov.

Mozgov played only two minutes in Cleveland's blowout victory, missing his lone shot, grabbing one rebound, and swiping one steal.

Malkin won his second Stanley Cup championship with the Penguins on Sunday, and his winning ways rubbed off on the Cavs, who forced Game 7 with a decisive victory over the Warriors in Cleveland's final home game of the season.

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Alex Goligoski's future is now in his hands.

Related: Coyotes GM: Goligoski 'first domino to fall' for many potential moves

The 30-year-old had his negotiating rights traded to the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday - giving the club roughly two weeks of exclusive negotiating power - a right that Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill admits Goligoski was owed.

"He's earned this right. He's earned this right to become a (unrestricted free agent)," Nill said, according to NHL.com's Mark Stepneski. "I told him I fully understand that. For him and his family, he needs to see what is the right fit monetarily-wise and team-wise. If there is something that fits, good for him. He was a good player for us."

Goligoski had been a member of the Stars since the 2010-11 season when he was traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nill admits the club did make an attempt to re-sign him. However, when negotiations failed he did his best to find a suitor for Goligoski.

"We negotiated with him," said Nill. "We made an offer and in the end we just couldn't agree on terms, which was fine. Negotiations were very well taken on both sides. In the end, Alex wanted to see what was out there.

"When I was talking to teams, Arizona showed a lot of interest. So, I called Alex and said, 'Do you want to go and talk to another team that showed interest in you?' And he thought that might be a good idea, give him another feel for the market. So, we ended up making the deal with Arizona."

Goligoski concludes his time with the Stars with 32 goals and 187 points in 385 games.

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Let no one say Cleveland doesn't win titles.

The American Hockey League's Lake Erie Monsters, the farm team of the Columbus Blue Jackets, were honored during Game 6 of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors on Thursday.

The Monsters swept the Hershey Bears in the Calder Cup Final, when Oliver Bjorkstrand scored the clinching goal in overtime of Game 4 with only 1.9 seconds left on the clock.

In short, if the Cavaliers bring a title to Cleveland, they'll be the second team to do it this year.

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Cam Ward wasn't interested in leaving what has become home.

The goaltender re-upped with the Carolina Hurricanes on a two-year, $6.6-million deal Thursday, and he wasn't interested in testing free agency. Not at all.

"Free agency never really did (interest me), to be honest," Ward told the Hurricanes' website. "I had a belief that something could be done. My family, we consider Raleigh home. I want to be here to play hockey, and there's also a family side to it, too. This is where we would like to be."

Ward is glad the uncertainty of his future is out of the way, and now he can simply focus on his work in the crease.

"I think it's a real good time to be a part of the Hurricanes," Ward said. "We've got some real good upside with the young prospects. We talk about the defense that was playing in front of me last year, a crew that I'm real excited to be able to play with. They're only going to get better, and that's the beauty of that. And you're seeing the team address other needs up front, getting players that they're real excited about. It's a matter of putting everything all together come September. The goal will remain to get back in the playoffs and fight for that Stanley Cup."

The Hurricanes added Bryan Bickell and Teuvo Teravainen in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.

Now that he's signed, Ward has to shift his focus to playing better. His .909 save percentage this past season ranked 32nd in the league, and his .910 mark in 2014-15 ranked 33rd.

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Making Anze Kopitar captain of the Los Angeles Kings was as much about Dustin Brown as it was about the Slovenian.

It's Kopitar's time to lead the club, general manager Dean Lombardi said Thursday, and it's also time for Brown to once again become the integral contributor he once was for the Kings.

"I really believe (Brown's) going to get his game back," Lombardi said, according to The Associated Press' Greg Beacham. "He perfectly recognizes that for us to be successful as a team, he needs to get his game back to where he's capable. It's just about putting the grind in now to figure out how to get his game back to where it was at one time, not long ago, he was one of the best power forwards in the league."

Brown's scored only 11 goals in each of the last two seasons, totaling a combined 55 points in 164 regular-season games. He had only 27 points in 2013-14. Before the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, Brown posted five straight seasons of 50 or more points. He was a beast.

The 31-year-old was also integral to the Stanley Cup the Kings won in 2012, scoring eight goals and adding 12 assists in 20 playoff games.

The thing is: Brown's not going anywhere. He's signed through 2021-22 at a cap hit of $5.875 million, and Lombardi said he has no plans to buy him out.

"There's this feeling in hockey that (a captaincy) is a lifetime appointment," Lombardi said. "And that's just something that's not always practical. This puts the responsibility squarely on the guys who need to assume that role right now."

Kopitar, for his part, said taking the "C" from a teammate is bittersweet, but that his relationship with Brown won't change.

"It's a little bit of sweet and sour in my mouth, just because (Brown) and I are very good friends. We've developed a strong relationship over the course of my 10 years in L.A.," Kopitar said. "I wouldn't say it's awkward. Just maybe a little bitter, but I don't think our relationship is going to change. I'm still going to need him right beside me to help me out with a lot of stuff, and hopefully we can just manage and continue working together."

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R.J. Umberger took the high road after parting ways with the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

Related: Flyers buy out Umberger

The 34-year-old was bought out of the final year of his contract - worth $4.6 million - but still took to Twitter to thank the organization for his time there.

After collecting 18 goals in 74 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013-14, he managed just 11 goals and 26 points in 106 games in his second tenure with the Flyers.

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