PITTSBURGH — The Ducks made Darryl Sutter an offer he couldn’t refuse.

Of course, he could have said, “Thanks, but no thanks,” and remained on his family’s farm near the tiny Canadian hamlet of Viking, Alberta, a contented man after winning two Stanley Cup championships in a remarkable three-season span with the Kings.

But something about Dallas Eakins’ coaching style and Bob Murray’s friendship and a chance to forge ahead in a new direction, in a new role, appealed to Sutter. He couldn’t stay away, even if it meant swapping allegiances in a fierce Southern California hockey rivalry.

Sutter got to know Eakins during Eakins’ four-year tenure as coach of the Ducks’ AHL team, the San Diego Gulls. Sutter’s son, Brett, played for the rival Ontario Reign, the Kings’ AHL team. Sutter and Murray, the Ducks’ general manager, were teammates with the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1980s.

Sutter, 61, had time on his hands after the Kings fired him after the 2016-17 season.

“It was more casual talk and knowing each other,” Sutter said Thursday. “Dallas was in San Diego and so I’d be around Ontario with Brett and I go back with ‘Murph.’ We’d talk casually about the team and things like that but never … so there was not one thing you could put your finger on.

“I really liked Dallas from watching his teams in San Diego. I liked how he played and what he was trying to do with his group. I’m really partial to guys who played and guys who are helping young guys, right? Or maybe not young guys, but guys who don’t have the experience at the NHL level.

“So that was probably the biggest thing for me.”

Sutter’s official title is advisor to the head coach and his role, while unique for the Ducks in their 26-year history, isn’t all that unusual around the NHL. Several prominent former coaches have been hired to serve as an extra set of eyes for head coaches.

For example, Jacques Martin was hired to be an assistant to Mike Sullivan, coach of the Ducks’ opponent Thursday, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Larry Robinson joined the St. Louis Blues to assist coach Craig Berube after Berube was hired to replace Mike Yeo last November.

“When I was a young head coach, I always had older former head coaches as someone I could talk to,” Sutter said. “When I was in Chicago, I had Bob Pulford, who was my general manager but he was also my coach and he had also been a head coach. So, I could always go to him and say, ‘What did you see?’ In San Jose, I had Bob Berry. I had him as an assistant coach.

“You need those guys. There’s always something to bounce off them, right?”

Eakins’ first NHL coaching job ended in failure after 113 games with the Edmonton Oilers in 2013-14 and 2014-15, the result of several factors that were beyond his control that exposed a deeper weakness within the perpetually rebuilding franchise. Above all, there was no support system.

There is one with the Ducks, one strengthened by the presence of Sutter, who said he has no plans to coach again in the NHL.

“One hundred percent you need a total support system,” Sutter said. “When things are smooth, it’s easy, when everything’s going good. But when there’s a little volatility or some adversity with your club, it’s always better to have somebody who can maybe just say, ‘Hey, try this or bounce that.’

“It’s always better to be able to go for a walk and talk to somebody than just to be locked in. It’s no different than any other workplace. You’ve got to be able to trust. You’ve got to be able to communicate. Ultimately, the head coach has to make a lot of tough decisions.

“But if something goes off, one little thing can make a difference.”

Sutter doesn’t stand alongside Eakins on the Ducks’ bench. That’s a job for assistant coaches Mark Morrison and Marty Wilford. Sutter is stationed in the press box, high above the ice, offering him a different vantage point. He’s on the Ducks’ current trip, but won’t be at all of their games this season.

He’s always available with a word or two or three of advice, though.

“Coming to Pittsburgh, maybe I’m going to know something about Pittsburgh that nobody else does,” Sutter said, getting to the heart of his new job. “Just from the past. Maybe something about the rink. Maybe something about a player. It might be something about the referee.

“Little things – and the league is so close now – maybe that can be a difference maker.”