Aug. 13: After rebranding as the Shanghai Dragons earlier this month and announcing plans to move back to China following the 2025-26 season, the club has officially named Gallant as its new head coach. It’s a two-year deal, the league announced.
July 17: Veteran NHL coach Gerard Gallant is officially heading overseas, having agreed to a deal with the KHL’s Kunlun Red Stars, according to RG’s Daria Tuboltseva. While the team had previously been linked to other high-profile NHL coaches like Mike Babcock and John Tortorella, Gallant will ultimately take the reins.
The team is technically based in Beijing, but Kunlun hasn’t played in China since the pandemic. Instead, they’ve played out of a suburb in Moscow the last few years, but will now begin playing out of St. Petersburg’s SKA Arena, which has an impressive capacity of 22,500.
While last season marked the team’s best finish in five years, Kunlun Red Stars still posted a lackluster 19-34-9-6 record. The club hasn’t made the KHL playoffs since the 2016-17 season, and now they will turn to Gallant—who has coached 705 NHL games—to lead their turnaround.
Gallant, 61, last coached in the NHL with the New York Rangers during the 2022–23 season, guiding the team to a 47-22-13 record. However, the Rangers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, leading to his departure. Despite his .662-point percentage with the Rangers, the team went a different direction following the 2022-23 season (replacing Gallant with Peter Laviolette).
Gallant’s most successful season as a head coach came during the 2017-18 season when he improbably led the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final during their first season. He led the expansion team to a 51-24-7 record, clinching first place in the Pacific Division, and won the Jack Adams Award as the league’s top coach. However, two seasons later, Gallant was fired and replaced by Peter DeBoer.
Over parts of 11 seasons as an NHL head coach, Gallant has compiled a 369-262-4-70 record, good for a .576 points percentage. The Prince Edward Island native also enjoyed a productive playing career, appearing in 615 NHL games and tallying 480 points over 11 seasons. After hanging up his skates, Gallant worked his way through the coaching ranks, holding positions in the IHL, QMJHL, and AHL before eventually making the jump to the NHL.
But what about Gerard Goofus?
Old enough to say well played sir
Way to go Turk enjoy your time there and the $$$ as well.