The new Quad-City Mallards might go "Quack to the Future" with an old Flame.

Scott Allen, assistant coach for the American Hockey League Q-C Flames the past two years, is the leading candidate to become the head coach of the new International Hockey League team.

Steve Ryan, the former Pittsburgh Penguins president who is taking the lead in coaching search, met Tuesday with Allen, who has continued to live in the Quad-Cities since the Flames pulled up stakes in April.

The job could be Allen's for the taking, but the former ECHL and AHL head man said he is weighing all options since Calgary opted not to renew a contract that expires within a month.

Opportunities to become an NHL assistant or join another AHL team either as head coach or an assistant likely would trump a Double-A offer.

But Allen, who attended Tuesday's introductory Mallards news conference, wouldn't preclude staying here to be head Duck.

"I don't rule anything out," he said. "So I guess we'll see what happens.

"I have had some phone calls here in the last few weeks and hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll have a much better idea where I am going."

Meanwhile, Ryan will make several key personnel decisions on Thursday, when the IHL hosts an expansion draft and a dispersal of players on the former Kalamazoo roster.

Beyond the locker room, Eric Galler, minority partner in the new Mallards ownership team, said the group is close to hiring a general manager and said additional front office hires quickly will follow.

"We are planning to have a fairly significant organization here in town," he said. "We are planning to have a good healthy sales staff, marketing department, people for PR and community outreach - all the necessary tools to make a successful hockey franchise."

One tool is missing: time.

"We know we are under a time crunch," Galler said of launching an organization on July 1 for an Oct. 16 puck drop. "A big part of this is moving quickly, but we have experience doing that."

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