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Gerard Gallant

Coaching Notes: Vincent, Hakstol, Boudreau, Tocchet

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New Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen is adding to his staff. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Blue Jackets are set to hire Manitoba Moose head coach Pascal Vincent as an assistant to Larsen. Vincent had previously left Paul Maurice’s Winnipeg Jets staff in favor of being the head coach for their AHL affiliate, but seemingly is back to being open to an NHL assistant role. Vincent has spent the past decade with the Jets organization and the previous dozen years as a head coach and GM in the QMJHL. With an impressive resume, Vincent may see this Columbus opportunity as a way to get his name out there beyond the confines of Winnipeg in hopes of attracting NHL head coach attention of his own down the road. Vincent will re-unite with Jack Roslovic in Columbus; he previously coached him as a prospect with the Moose but he has now become the No. 1 center for the Blue Jackets. That relationship should be mutually beneficial for the pair.

  • The big coaching news of the day was of course the hiring of Dave Hakstol as the first head coach of the expansion Seattle Kraken. And while Hakstol’s role will be in the locker room and not the front office, GM Ron Francis will certainly take his opinions into consideration. After all, it was the Florida Panthers, the former team of Vegas’ inaugural head coach, Gerard Gallant, that were swindled the worst by the Golden Knights in the last Expansion Draft. Florida traded Reilly Smith and a fourth-round pick so that Vegas would select Jonathan Marchessault over the likes of Alexander Petrovic and Mark Pysyk. While no teams should be fooled so badly this time around, Hakstol’s knowledge of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadephia Flyers – not to mention the numerous University of North Dakota alumni around the league – could come into play. The Flyers in particular are expected to have many well-known names exposed in the draft, some of whom played their best seasons under Hakstol, and the coach may know exactly how to target the team.
  • The Maple Leafs now have a vacancy on their coaching staff in the wake of Hakstol’s departure, but the club’s fans think they have already figured it out. Yahoo’s Thomas Williams writes that there has already been an outpouring of support for veteran coach Bruce Boudreau to be hired as the team’s newest assistant. The Toronto native and former Maple Leafs player spoke out this off-season as a free agent that he would like to coach his hometown team and fans seem to agree with the match. Boudreau has had a long and successful coaching career and some feel that head coach Sheldon Keefe could use the veteran support on the bench. With that said, Boudreau has never served as an assistant in the NHL and interviewed for the Buffalo Sabres’ head coach vacancy late last month. Despite any personal feelings and fan support, Boudreau will take the top job for the struggling Sabres over a No. 2 role for Toronto.
  • Of course, Boudreau is not the only candidate for the Sabres’ job, as Rick Tocchet is also among the names who interviewed for the position. Tocchet interviewed multiple times with the Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, and Seattle Kraken, only to lose out on all three jobs. He has reportedly only interviewed once with Buffalo, who may not have been his top choice at first, but they are the only landing spot left, as the other remaining NHL head coach position is the post he vacated with the Arizona Coyotes. Tocchet is clearly a well-regarded and sought-after coach, so now that they are his last hope at a top job this season, perhaps the Sabres and Tocchet will get serious about a potential match.

New York Rangers Hire Gerard Gallant

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June 16: The Rangers have officially announced the hiring of Gallant as their next head coach. The four-year deal is worth around $3.5MM a year, according to LeBrun. That puts Gallant on the higher end of the coaching spectrum, but actually comes in quite a bit lower than the league’s highest-paid bench bosses. Quinn, Gallant’s predecessor, earns $2.4MM per season on his five-year deal.

June 14: The New York Rangers have found their new head coach. Larry Brooks of the New York Post is reporting that the Rangers have reached an agreement to hire Gerard Gallant, who had been considered the favorite to land the job for some time.

It seemed like a perfect fit from the moment the Rangers fired David Quinn, but Gallant and the team both did their due diligence. The veteran head coach interviewed elsewhere, including multiple meetings with the Columbus Blue Jackets before they decided to go with Brad Larsen, while New York spoke with several other candidates while Gallant coached Team Canada in Latvia at the World Championship. The two sides obviously decided that it was the best fit in the end, with Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweeting that it will be a four-year deal.

If he gets through that term, it will be the first time he lasts four years with a team. In each of Gallant’s head coaching stops, he has been fired in the middle of his third season with the team, most recently by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2020. Despite taking them to the Stanley Cup Final in year one and back to the playoffs in year two, the Golden Knights replaced Gallant with Pete DeBoer last season after a so-so beginning to the regular season. Since then, the 57-year-old has been waiting for the right opportunity, while also helping Canada to a gold medal in the recent international tournament.

That opportunity is in New York, where a young, talented Rangers team is ready to take the next step. The front office was gutted earlier this year when chairman James Dolan fired both president John Davidson and GM Jeff Gorton, installing Chris Drury in their place. At the time, it was clear that ownership wasn’t happy with the speed at which the rebuild was moving, meaning you can expect a few more kick-start moves this summer. One of those is Gallant, who knows how to both develop young players and get the best out of veterans at the same time.

He is responsible for the only 100+ point season in Florida Panthers history, which he achieved thanks to the performances by 20-year-old Aleksander Barkov and 43-year-old Jaromir Jagr. He managed a .601 winning percentage with the Golden Knights, despite many believing the team would be near the bottom of the standings like most expansion teams at the beginning of their existence.

He’ll now be tasked with reaching the playoffs in a tough Metropolitan Division, while also turning the likes of Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, and Vitali Kravtsov into the difference-makers they were drafted to be.

New York Rangers To Interview Gerard Gallant

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After firing head coach David Quinn on Wednesday, the New York Rangers and new GM Chris Drury are wasting no time in their search for a replacement. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the club has already received permission to interview one of the biggest names on the coaching market. Gerard Gallant will get the first crack at interviewing for the head coach vacancy in the Big Apple.

The Vegas Golden Knights have approved of the interview, having fired Gallant from his role as head coach last January with term on his contract – to much surprise. The former Columbus Blue Jackets and Florida Panthers bench boss is a Jack Adams Award recipient with a .550 points percentage in his nine years as a head coach. He took the expansion Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season and then back to the playoffs the following year. Gallant has never made it through three years with any of his clubs, but has nevertheless established himself as an a valued name in the NHL coaching world. If Gallant doesn’t land the New York job, he will surely have interest elsewhere, particularly from the newest expansion team in the Seattle Kraken.

The timing of this interview does have some reasoning behind it. While Gallant may indeed be the Rangers’ top candidate, the rush to interview him has more to do with his upcoming plans. Gallant is getting ready to coach Team Canada at the World Championships, which begin on May 21. Gallant will actually depart for Riga, Latvia this weekend, according to Dreger, so the Rangers wanted to touch base with him before he left and his focus was elsewhere. Of course, Drury will be very keyed into the World Championships himself as the GM of Team USA. A strong outing for Gallant leading a Canadian roster that won’t have the typical amount of talent against Drury’s American squad could be what pushes Gallant to the top of the Rangers’ shortlist to be their next head coach.

Gerard Gallant Named Head Coach Of Team Canada

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He’s been away from the NHL for a little while, but that doesn’t mean Gerard Gallant has forgotten how to coach. The veteran bench boss has been named the head coach for Team Canada at the upcoming 2021 IIHF World Championship. Gallant will be joined by assistants Mike Kelly and Andre Tourigny. Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney released a statement on the decision to bring in Gallant:

We are fortunate to lean on the professional and executive experience that all three gentlemen will bring as Canada gets set for the IIHF World Championship in Latvia. Gerard and Mike have worked together both at the NHL and junior level and have an understanding of what it takes to compete and win. André complements them with his extensive coaching résumé and recent experience at the World Juniors. We believe we have selected a group that will build on each other’s strengths and provide exceptional leadership, with input from Roberto [Luongo] and the Olympic management group, as our team prepares to compete for a gold medal.

This won’t be the first time that Gallant is behind the bench of Team Canada. He served as an assistant at the World Championship in 2007 and 2017 and was also an assistant at the 2016 World Cup. His last full-time coaching position was with the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2019-20 season when he was replaced midseason by Pete DeBoer.

While this could just be Hockey Canada taking advantage of a coach with nothing else to do, it’s easy to see this move for Gallant as a way to get back into the swing of coaching before taking a job next season. Very well respected around the league, his name has been linked to several upcoming vacancies including the Seattle Kraken, who have yet to name their first coach in franchise history. Gallant of course served as that pioneer for the Golden Knights, taking Vegas to the Stanley Cup Final in year one.

Kelly at one point served as an assistant for Gallant in the QMJHL and was actually the coach who took over the Saint John Seadogs when he left for a role with the Montreal Canadiens in 2012. Tourigny meanwhile was recently hired as a full-time coach by Hockey Canada, serving on several staffs over the next year.

The IIHF World Championship is set to start on May 21 in Riga, Latvia.

Central Notes: Blue Jackets, Stamkos, Galvas, Reichel

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With the regular season slowly coming to an end, there have been plenty of speculation regarding what the Columbus Blue Jackets intend to do about their coaching situation. While the team still has head coach John Tortorella under contract, that deal will expire at the end of the season and so far there hasn’t been a new extension, suggesting the team may be looking in a different direction.

In his most recent mailbag, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required) writes while there is no guarantee that Tortorella is on his way out as the team could easily choose to re-sign him, the growing suggestions that the team will instead bring in former coach Gerard Gallant is highly unlikely. Gallant, who has become quite a big-name coach since leaving Columbus, could command a salary in the $4MM range, something the Blue Jackets likely would never meet with the scribe adding that the $2.5MM that Tortorella is making could be one of the reasons why Columbus may be looking for a new coach for 2021-22.

In fact, Portzline suggests that one candidate who could have some merit as a coaching candidate is former Columbus player Luke Richardson.

  • Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that forward Steven Stamkos remains on schedule with his recovery from a lower-body injury, according to The Athletic’s Joe Smith. While the initial diagnosis stated that he needed seven to 10 days, it’s already been eight days, suggesting he will not be ready to return on time. However, Cooper said that with three weeks left before the playoffs, Stamkos will be ready. He added that Nikita Kucherov also remains on schedule to return by the playoffs, although he has yet to be cleared for contact.
  • The Atheltic’s Scott Powers (subscription required) writes that the Chicago Blackhawks are expected to sign a couple prospect in the coming weeks, including 2017 draft prospect Jakub Galvas. The defenseman must sign a contract before July 1 or the team loses his rights. He has spent the last two years playing in the Liiga and has scored four goals and 27 points combined over two seasons. Powers adds that the team is also working to sign their 2020 first-round pick, German forward Lukas Reichel, to an entry-level deal. Reichel has 10 goals and 27 points in 38 games in the DEL this season.

Washington Capitals Interview Mike Babcock, Gerard Gallant

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Reports surfaced a week ago that the Washington Capitals received permission to interview veteran coach Peter Laviolette for their open head coaching position. However with three big-name coaches available, many felt GM Brian MacLellan would also interview the other two, to fill the vacancy left after the team fired Todd Reirden.

Last night during Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Washington has already interviewed former Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock:

“Last week the reports got out that the Washington Capitals had permission to interview Peter Laviolette for their vacant head coaching job, this week it’s believed that they interviewed Toronto’s former head coach Mike Babcock,” Friedman said. “And he is a legitimate candidate for the position.”

Babcock certainly would provide the Capitals with a ton of experience. The 57-year-old coached the Anaheim Ducks for two seasons before taking on the Detroit Red Wings for 12 years, which included winning the Stanley Cup in 2008. He spent four and a half years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but failed to lead the team through a round of the playoffs. Throw in a sluggish start to the 2019-20 season and he was fired in November. He has a combined 351-173-133 regular season record.

However, it doesn’t end there as Friedman also noted later on in the segment that the Capitals have also interviewed former Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights’ head coach Gerard Gallant. The veteran coach coached each team for two full seasons each before getting fired in the middle of his third season with each team. However, he did win the Jack Adams award in 2018 in Vegas’ inaugural season when he took the expansion team to the Stanley Cup Finals. He was also the runner-up for the Jack Adams with Florida in 2016.

The Capitals are in a good position with so many veteran coaches available. The team, who has a history of hiring inexperienced coaches, has made it clear they are willing to bring in a coach with plenty of experience as the window for the team is starting to close. Star forward Alex Ovechkin will be turning 35 years old in 11 days and likely only has two to three years remaining at his peak and with little youth in the system, Washington will need a coach that can light a fire under them in the next few years.

Coaching Notes: Washington, Ward, Tortorella

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The Washington Capitals decided to move on from Todd Reirden after just two years as head coach and won’t be taking another risk with their next hiring. That’s what Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic says in his latest column, explaining that the Capitals are focused on bringing in a proven head coach instead of giving another newcomer an opportunity.

That means the names are familiar ones when discussing the Capitals coaching vacancy. Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette and Mike Babcock are the first three names that LeBrun mentions, though even former Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau gets a few paragraphs as well. Washington went 89-46-16 under Reirden since winning a championship in 2018 but were quickly dumped in the playoffs both years. Still in their win-now window with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom leading the way, Washington is also looking for a coach that will “hold the team’s top players accountable.”

  • Geoff Ward spoke to reporters including Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet yesterday and explained that he would consider a return to the organization even if the Calgary Flames decided to go in a different direction at head coach. Ward would obviously rather take the head coaching position himself, but declined the opportunity to campaign for it through the media. He took over as head coach when Bill Peters resigned early in the season and led the Flames to a 24-15-3 record, but was also part of the collapse against the Dallas Stars. The Flames allowed seven straight goals in an elimination game and Ward pulled starter Cam Talbot and then reinserted him during the collapse. With substantial changes likely coming in Calgary, they may also want to go with a different face behind the bench.
  • One coach that likely isn’t going anywhere this offseason is John Tortorella, even though his Columbus Blue Jackets failed to advance past the first round. Even getting that far was seen as quite the accomplishment for the veteran coach, but he’ll lose out on a little salary in the process. The league today fined Tortorella $25,000 for his comments (or more specifically his lack of comments) after game five against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tortorella took two questions and then stormed out of the press conference, obviously frustrated with the loss. The penalty is actually a collection of the conditional fine that was assessed on January 1 after a previous incident. This is the 13th time Tortorella has been disciplined by the league.

Pacific Notes: Kraken Coach, Lennstrom, Hall, Chayka

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With Seattle revealing their team name on Thursday, the next big decision they have will be who becomes their inaugural head coach.  According to TSN’s Darren Dreger on the latest Insider Trading, the Kraken aren’t close to making a choice on that front and will wait until the conclusion of the upcoming playoffs at a minimum before doing so.  That will allow them to get a sense for any other candidates that may become available depending on how things go.  In the meantime, they have several veterans that they can do their due diligence on.  Dreger singled out Gerard Gallant who would be a logical choice given how he performed in a similar situation with Vegas in their inaugural season.  He mentions that Gallant is in the mix but considering how early in the process they still are, he’s far from an early contender.

More from the Pacific Division:

  • Earlier this week, the Oilers loaned defenseman Theodor Lennstrom to Frolunda but there was no word on whether or not it would be a full-season loan of a short-term one. GM Ken Holland confirmed to Postmedia’s Jim Matheson that it is indeed the latter and that the Swedish team is aware that Edmonton will want the 25-year-old back when the 2020-21 season is set to get underway.  Lennstrom is likely AHL-bound to start the season to get acclimated to the smaller North American rinks but could be a recall option at some point.
  • The recent meeting between Coyotes CEO Xavier Gutierrez and pending UFA winger Taylor Hall raised some eyebrows considering GM John Chayka wasn’t present. However, Kent Somers and Richard Morin of The Arizona Republic note that a low-ball offer was tendered to Hall at the meeting, suggesting that Gutierrez is running point on any negotiations at this juncture.  That would be an odd approach to take given that the GM has had little trouble getting their core players to agree to long-term extensions throughout his tenure in Arizona.
  • Even odder is that there are questions as to whether or not Chayka will be a part of Arizona’s 52-person roster in the bubble, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link). While it’s ultimately expected he will be, the fact that it’s uncertain plus him being taken out of talks with Hall for the time being is something to certainly keep an eye on.

New Jersey Devils Trim Head Coach Search To Four

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The New Jersey Devils got off to another disappointingly slow start in 2019-20. After missing the playoffs in three of their first four seasons under head coach John Hynes, the team decided not to continue a fifth campaign with their bench boss. Hynes was fired on December 3rd with the Devils 9-13-4 on the season, a points percentage of .423. Assistant Alaine Nasreddine took over as head coach and the team did improve over the rest of the season, finishing with a .493 points percentage and just one win shy of a .500 record. However, the question is whether that improvement of .07 percentage points is enough for Nasreddine to keep his job. Or will the Devils focus more on their last-place finish in the Metropolitan Division and look elsewhere for a new head coach?

According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, Nasreddine is at least still in the mix for the position. Although New Jersey is facing down a very long off-season as one of the seven teams not to qualify for the expanded postseason (ironically Hynes’ Nashville Predators qualified), they are moving quickly in their coaching search. LeBrun reports that the Devils have spoken with eight to ten candidates for the position, but have whittled it down to just four finalists, one of which is Nasreddine. Who the remaining three names might be is unknown, but Gerard Gallant was one of the first to interview and has to be considered a front-runner given his recent success with the Vegas Golden Knights. Other big names available on the coaching market include Peter Laviolette, Mike Babcock, Bruce Boudreau, John Stevens, and Mike Yeo.

Potentially complicating the hiring process could be the status of the GM position. Tom Fitzgerald, like Nasreddine, is another assistant who was promoted but handed an interim tag this season. He has done an admirable job thus far, but his status remains in limbo. The team has reported talked to some outside candidates, including former Canucks GM Mike Gillis, and may be waiting to make a call on head coach until they know who is leading the organization as GM. However, they have plenty of time ahead of them to make these decisions, even though they appear to be making progress on their hunt for a head coach.

Latest On New Jersey Devils Coaching Search

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The New Jersey Devils won’t be playing any more hockey for quite some time as one of the teams not included in the 24-team format, but that doesn’t mean they can take a vacation. The front office has plenty of work to do this offseason, including making a decision on interim GM Tom Fitzgerald and interim coach Alain Nasreddine.

On the coaching side, reports have surfaced over the last several weeks the Devils have shown interest in several top names. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet writes that New Jersey is “eyeing at least four candidates” with Nasreddine, Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette, and John Stevens the known contenders.

Laviolette comes with the most experience as an NHL head coach, with over 1,300 games behind the bench. He also comes with a ton of regular season success—only one team coached by Laviolette has finished under .500—but doesn’t have nearly as much in the postseason.

Gallant meanwhile is another coach with plenty of success, though his last two stops have ended abruptly. After taking the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season and getting them back to the playoffs in year two, the organization made a switch in 2019-20.

Obviously at this point there is no rush in bringing in the next Devils head coach, especially if next season doesn’t start until January. But for a franchise that once went to the playoffs 19 times in 20 years (including four trips to the finals and three cups) there must be a lot of anxious energy to get things back on track.

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