Thursday: Gallant was supposed to coach the Pacific Division All-Star team at this month’s event, but will be replaced by Rick Tocchet of the Arizona Coyotes.
Wednesday: In shocking news this morning, the Vegas Golden Knights have decided to fire the first coach in franchise history, Gerard Gallant, and replace him with Peter DeBoer. Gallant’s assistant Mike Kelly has also been relieved of his duties. General manager Kelly McCrimmon released a statement on the move:
In order for our team to reach its full potential, we determined a coaching change was necessary. Our team is capable of more than we have demonstrated this season. We would like to thank Gerard and Mike for their service to the Vegas Golden Knights. They were both instrumental to the success we have enjoyed in our first two-plus seasons and we wish them all the best moving forward. In Peter DeBoer, we have a proven, experienced head coach who we believe can help us achieve our ultimate goal. We are excited to welcome Peter and his family to the Vegas Golden Knights organization. We look forward to a strong finish to the 2019-20 season with Peter at the helm and a successful tenure in the seasons to come.
Gallant was hired to lead the Golden Knights into their first season in 2017, and did more with a roster of misfits and castoffs than anyone expected. The expansion club got off to a fast start and never looked back, riding strong goaltending and breakout performances all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. Though they would lose in five games to the Washington Capitals, a 51-24-7 season was considered an unparalleled success for the expansion franchise and proved that Vegas was already a contender in the Western Conference.
That expectation of success only continued last season, when the Golden Knights once again made the playoffs with a 43-32-7 record. While that was a step backwards, the team still had 93 points and was within a goal of going to the second round after a brutal loss to the San Jose Sharks. This season saw more of that success, though a four-game losing streak now has the Golden Knights sitting just outside the playoff picture, tied with the Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets but having played two more games.
Perhaps it is that losing streak that did him in, as Gallant’s dismissal has been called completely “performance based.” The team has regressed in terms of points percentage since they started, but how much you can blame that on the coach is unclear. It’ll be DeBoer’s opportunity to show that he can turn things around, with a third of the season still remaining.
Speaking of DeBoer, he gets a new job after only being fired himself a month ago. The former Sharks bench boss is back in business after being let go earlier this season, and will start in with his fourth team. The two-time Stanley Cup finalist has never won the ultimate prize, but does have a .550 winning percentage across 855 career games behind the bench.
This probably the best news all month for a Sharks fan.
A lot of coaches will look bad when they have a save percentage of .890 from their goalies.
Yeah JD,you get that from Spoiled unknowledgeable Sharks Fans who don’t truly know the Game. Advice: 95 and others,Watch the League you might learn something
I’m pretty sure the fact the Sharks still sucked after DeBoer was fired showed it wasn’t him.
This is really stupid unless there was a #metoo incident brewing. Gallant by all accounts is a great coach.
You get rid of a guy that led an expansion team to the Stanley Cup Final and then hire the coach of the biggest choke artists in hockey. I bet Thornton is living in Vegas in 2 weeks. And he will fail to win a cup there too.
i doubt Thornton goes to a division rival unless vegas coughs up something nice
Yeah.Like a lung.
“We have failed to live up to our potential as a team, and we figured that we might as well bring in a coach who is an expert in that (especially in the playoffs)!
There are teams that have been around for years that would never make this move. It’s amazing for a 3rd year team to continue to have such high expectations. Gallant is a victim of his own success
Las Vegas is big league. If you don’t live up to expectations you get eaten alive!
Sometimes literally, see the tiger who attacked the performer on stage years ago lol
Ok, Rocky. Time to make the move and fire Colliton and bring Gallant in. Now is your chance
@windycitykid89 – THAT would be the best bench boss signing in a while! Vegas’ loss = ‘Hawks gain…big time! Love that idea!
Hello I said last year Bowman and Colliton need to go and most every one talked trash and praised them both. Hopefully now McDonough fires them both today and starts another Cup Run
1)100% wrong. I’ve been following MLBTR for a while, and not one single person has praised Bowman and Colliton for what they’ve done the last year plus.
2)Even if they hire Gallant, the Hawks are still far way from being a title contender. But it’s a step in the right process
what fools. unless there is something here we dont know, this will assuredly blow up on them.
This is ridiculous. Hockey teams are too trigger happy with the HC. Gallant is a proven better coach than Derboer. The Knights are right in the thick of things and only 3 points behind 1st place. Dumb dumb dumb. Seattle just found their HC.
If Gallant took the Seattle job, wouldn’t he then be the first person to ever take the reigns of two expansion franchises in their inaugural year? Cause that would be something!
Why do the people in this comment section know that this is a bad idea, but the Golden Knights’management did not?
Makes no sense.
Another team will gladly scoop him up and, unless they are the Pens or Isles, have a better coach than they have now.
I think berube is better.
What!? Why!?!!!!!????
Why don’t we just start trading coaches.
might as well fire them all. we’re on that sort of pace.
willing to give vegas management benefit of the doubt. they have gotten almost everything right to this point. still don’t understand what teams see in deBoer?
Gallant treated the local media with disdain and had ridiculous excuses after losses. I think the owner had enough of their performance on the ice and his demeanor off it. Gallant has a heck of a temper so there may have also been a blow up between him and any of McCrimmon/McPhee/Foley.
I remember one writer saying that Gallant didn’t have that long of a shelf life when he took the job in Vegas… guess that was true.
small talk on NHL Network , for Gallant to Detroit.
I dunno, seems to me that both Vegas and Nashville downgraded on the coaching front. Time will tell I guess. But for teams with average or below coaching right now, you have a few good options available to you.
I heard he got fired cause his players were stealing signs. I heard this from Peter stastnys niece.
1/10 for the horrible troll comment. Step your game up.