New York Rangers Part Ways With Gerard Gallant
In an odd mix between being a surprising yet expected move, the New York Rangers have announced today that they have agreed to part ways with head coach Gerard Gallant. This will mark the end of his two-year stint in New York, and the Rangers now become a new player on the head coaching market this summer.
Gallant’s first stint in coaching came when he joined the Columbus Blue Jackets as an assistant coach for their inaugural season in the league. As the franchise got off to a slow start, as was typical for expansion franchises at the time, Gallant was promoted to head coach of the Blue Jackets halfway through the 2003-04 season. Getting off to a 5-9-1 start to the 2006-07 season, Gallant was fired by the Blue Jackets organization and finished his first head coaching stint with a 56-76-4-6 record.
Between 2008-2014, Gallant would spend time with the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens, both in the assistant coach position. Between those two stops on his coaching journey, Gallant would spend three seasons in the QMJHL as head coach of the Saint John Sea Dogs. Finally, after moving on from the Canadiens, Gallant would get his next opportunity as a head coach in the NHL, joining the Florida Panthers before the 2014-15 season.
In Florida, Gallant had the benefit of joining a team that could seemingly only improve. In the 2013-14 season, Florida finished 29th in the league and would be awarded the number one overall selection in the 2014 NHL Draft, selecting Barrie Colts defenseman, Aaron Ekblad. In his first full season coaching Florida, the team improved better than expected, improving by 25 points in the standings year-on-year, and barely missing the playoffs.
In the 2015-16 season, the Panthers would finally make it back to the playoffs, finishing first in the Atlantic Division, but ultimately losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Islanders. After an 11-10-1 start to the 2016-17 season, Gallant was once again let go at the beginning of the season.
It would not take long for Gallant to find his new home, as he was hired by the newest expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights, before their first season in 2017-18. Accomplishing one of the most unexpected feats in NHL history, Gallant would lead the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, losing to the Washington Capitals in five games. Taking a step back during the 2018-19 season, the Golden Knights would once again make the playoffs, but this time losing in the first round to the San Jose Sharks.
Just missing the 50-game mark of the 2019-20 season, Gallant would coach the Golden Knights to a 24-19-6 record and would be subsequently fired midseason once again in his head coaching career. He would finish his stint in Vegas with a 118-75-20 record over 213 games.
Finally, he once again found his way to the Big Apple, joining the Rangers as head coach starting in the 2021-22 season. In his two-year stint in New York as head coach, he would lead the Rangers to a 99-46-19 record, leading the team to the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Heading into the 2022-23 NHL offseason, the Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, Blue Jackets, Capitals, and now the Rangers all have head coaching vacancies to fill.
Calgary Flames Fire Darryl Sutter
As reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Calgary Flames are expected to fire head coach Darryl Sutter. Sutter was set to enter a two-year extension with the team on July 1. The team made the news official later Monday morning.
Calgary will owe Sutter the $4MM per season committed on his extension, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic confirms.
While the news comes with some surprise after the team retained Sutter while parting ways with general manager Brad Treliving weeks ago, it’s not entirely unexpected based on Calgary’s incredibly disappointing season. After making multiple high-octane changes during the offseason, the Flames were expected to compete for the Pacific Division title entering 2022-23. Instead, burnout struck the team, which missed the playoffs for the third time in six seasons.
Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation president and CEO John Bean gave the following statement on Sutter’s dismissal:
On behalf of ownership and all Calgary Flames fans, we want to thank Darryl for his cumulative years of service to the Calgary Flames and to the community at large.
The news concludes Sutter’s second tenure as head coach of the Flames. After serving behind the bench for three seasons between 2002 and 2006, the Flames brought Sutter back into the fold during the 2020-21 season. In total, he ends his Flames career as head coach with 404 games, a 210-136-15-43 record, and a Western Conference championship in 2004.
Sutter’s reputation for strong defensive teams came through strong in 2021-22, with Calgary enjoying their best regular-season record behind their Stanley Cup-winning 1988-89 campaign. Finishing first in the Pacific Division with 111 points, Calgary’s strong play dried up in the Second Round, losing to Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
That same mentality didn’t carry over to a 2022-23 team with significant offensive turnover, and prized acquisitions Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri struggled heavily to fit into Calgary’s system. With the team committed to both players for many years to come, interim general manager Don Maloney decided a new direction behind the bench was necessary for future success.
Whoever Calgary’s next head coach may be, they’ll inherit a team that still has the key components necessary to compete in the Western Conference. With a system more suited to the capabilities of Huberdeau and Kadri, as well as more opportunities for younger players such as Dillon Dubé, Jakob Pelletier, and Adam Ruzicka, the Flames aren’t in a position where they need to tear down and start over.
Calgary Flames, Brad Treliving Agree To Part Ways
The Calgary Flames and general manager Brad Treliving have mutually agreed to part ways upon the conclusion of his contract this season, the team announced Monday. Calgary has promoted Don Maloney to president of hockey operations, and he will serve as the interim general manager.
Interestingly enough, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports that Darryl Sutter‘s job as head coach appears to be safe. Seravalli said it’s “fair to say” that Sutter’s continuation in his role influenced whether Calgary would re-sign Treliving.
Treliving had been with the Flames for nine years, during which he led the team to five playoff appearances. With the team massively underachieving this season after a transformational offseason, though, it was decided mutually that a new direction for both Treliving and the Flames was the right choice.
Maloney has been serving as senior vice president of hockey operations with the Flames for the past five seasons. He has previous GM experience in the NHL with the Coyotes, serving in that role from 2007 to 2016.
Calgary says Maloney’s appointment to the role is not permanent, and the interviewing process to find a new general manager will begin immediately.
For the Flames, it’s a chance to start a whole new regime on and off the ice, save for Sutter momentarily. With former core pieces Johnny Gaudreau, Matthew Tkachuk, Sean Monahan, and others gone by the wayside, along with noncommital answers on their future from Mikael Backlund and Elias Lindholm, there’s a chance for even more significant roster turnover in the near future.
Treliving is a very well-respected person in NHL front office circles, and, despite a disappointing end to his lengthy tenure in Calgary, should have no trouble finding another NHL role soon. Calgary Sports and Entertainment CEO and president John Bean gave a statement on Treliving’s departure:
It’s a difficult day when you must part ways with a quality colleague and friend. We are grateful of Brad’s contributions over the past nine years and wish him every success in his future, both personally and professionally. But for our fans and our business, we need to move forward, and we are confident with Don’s experience that we will find the right General Manager to build on Brad’s work and lead our team to the Stanley Cup.
Blue Jackets Fire Brad Larsen
Another coaching vacancy in the NHL has been opened up as the Blue Jackets announced that they have fired head coach Brad Larsen. Additionally, they will not be renewing the contract of goaltender coach Manny Legace. GM Jarmo Kekalainen released the following statement:
This season has been extremely disappointing and the responsibility for that lies with all of us. These decisions were difficult and not made lightly given our respect for both Brad and Manny as coaches and people. Brad has been part of our organization for more than a decade, and we are extremely thankful for his hard work and many contributions – both on and off the ice – during that time. We wish nothing but the best for Brad and his family in the future.
While Larsen hadn’t been the head coach for long (just two years), he had been with the organization for close to a decade. Prior to being promoted to the top job in 2021-22, he had served as an assistant under former bench bosses Todd Richards and John Tortorella.
When Larsen took over the top job, it looked like Columbus was embarking on a bit of a rebuild. But the Blue Jackets got off to a hot start last season and while they eventually missed the playoffs, there was some optimism that they could turn things around a little quicker than expected. That resulted in a surprisingly aggressive summer last year, one that saw them land winger Johnny Gaudreau in free agency in an effort to bolster their attack. In doing so, expectations were heightened for 2022-23.
However, things didn’t go as planned. Not even close, in fact. Instead, the team set a franchise record with 563 man-games lost to injury, many of which were to some of their key performers. That played a big role in their offensive production dropping sharply by 50 goals in total, moving them from 14th in that category a year ago to 30th this season. Meanwhile, with several key blueliners missing (including Zach Werenski who was limited to just 13 appearances), the defense struggled mightily as well, putting extra pressure on the goaltending which also had some challenges with starter Elvis Merzlikins having a year to forget, posting a 4.23 GAA and a .876 SV% which played a big role in Legace’s deal not being renewed.
The end result was a 25-47-9 record, putting the Blue Jackets last in the Eastern Conference while bringing Larsen’s record as head coach to 62-86-16, good for a points percentage of just .427, paving the way for this change to be made.
Columbus now joins Anaheim and Washington as teams that will be looking for a new bench boss for next season. After a 2022 summer that saw them try to accelerate their rebuild, Kekalainen will need to decide if that’s the path they want to continue to go down or if they’ll take a step back once again. Which direction they intend to go should influence if they look for another first-time bench boss to lead them through the rebuild or if their preference will be a veteran bench boss with more of a proven record of short-term success.
Washington Capitals, Peter Laviolette Agree To Part Ways
The Washington Capitals and head coach Peter Laviolette have mutually agreed to part ways, per a team announcement. Laviolette’s contract was set to expire on June 30th.
Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan issued the following statement regarding Laviolette’s departure:
We are grateful for Peter’s leadership and dedication to our organization for the last three seasons. Peter is a first-class individual who has represented our club with integrity and guided our team through many difficult circumstances in his tenure as our head coach. We wish him all the best moving forward.
Laviolette, 58, has guided the Capitals for the last three seasons, posting a 115-78-27 record along the way. Laviolette was hired by the Capitals after former coach Todd Reirden’s two-year tenure. The Capitals had declined since their 2018 Stanley Cup championship under Reirden, and the organization wanted to go with a bench boss with more experience to lead a resurgence.
The 2020-21 season went relatively well for Laviolette. He helped the Capitals navigate the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and led them to a 36-15-5 record, which ranked them second in the MassMutual East Division.
His Capitals fell in the first round of the playoffs, though, and the main culprit responsible for the team’s demise was largely considered to be unreliable goaltending.
An inability to get reliable play in the crease plagued Laviolette’s second year in Washington to an even greater degree than his first. The player who started the most games for that Capitals team, Ilya Samsonov, posted a .896 save percentage and ultimately did not receive a qualifying offer in the summer. The other, Vitek Vanecek, posted a .908 save percentage but only played twice in the team’s first-round loss to the Florida Panthers, and ended up shipped to the New Jersey Devils in the offseason.
This year, significant injuries to key contributors such as John Carlson, Nicklas Backstrom, and Tom Wilson presented a significant challenge for Laviolette, and the Capitals ultimately did not have the organizational depth to cope with the extended absences of those franchise pillars.
With Alex Ovechkin chasing down Wayne Gretzky‘s all-time goals record and the club desperately seeking a first and now second Stanley Cup championship, the Capitals’ front office has been operating with a win-now mentality for quite a while. While that win-now mentality ultimately fueled the team’s eight-year playoff streak, most understood that the bill would eventually need to be paid.
Eventually, it was believed, the lack of high-end prospects and the depleting pipeline of talent between Washington and their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, would come back to bite the Capitals. This season was the year where the cracks in the foundation of the Capitals’ organization seemed to finally show, and prompted MacLellan and the team’s front office to make a pivot in terms of priorities.
As long as Ovechkin is chasing Gretzky’s record, a traditional rebuild is surely off the table. But what MacLellan did this season showed that the organization would prioritize acquiring NHL-ready young talent. He flipped the first-rounder he acquired from Dmitry Orlov to acquire Rasmus Sandin, a 23-year-old blueliner who had an impressive 15 points in 19 games after the deal.
It seems the Capitals’ priority is now infusing the team with younger players, and affording those young players the types of on-ice opportunities that might be reserved for veterans in seasons of true Stanley Cup contention.
For Laviolette, that new organizational priority is likely not what he signed up for, and as a veteran head coach who happens to be the winningest American bench boss in NHL history, it’s unlikely that he’d be the best fit for a developmentally-minded Capitals organization moving forward.
So with his contract set to expire and the Capitals headed in a new, more youth-focused direction, Laviolette’s exit from Washington is far from a surprise. The 2006 Stanley Cup champion ultimately didn’t accomplish what he was brought into Washington to do — deliver more playoff success than the team had under Reirden — but he nonetheless deserves commendation for leading the franchise through some significant challenges. He’s likely to be a top name on the offseason coaching market, should he want to immediately jump back into a new job.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Anaheim Ducks Won’t Bring Back Dallas Eakins
The Anaheim Ducks won’t renew the expiring contract of head coach Dallas Eakins, the team announced in a release Friday morning.
Eakins has been at the helm of the team since the start of the 2019-20 season. Anaheim made the decision following a season that finished beneath already low expectations, finishing last in the NHL with 58 points.
Under Eakins’ leadership, the Ducks were one of the worst defensive teams of the post-lockout era in 2022-23. Their 4.09 goals against per game were the highest in a single season since the 1995-96 San Jose Sharks.
“This was a very difficult decision, one that comes after careful and considerable deliberation,” said Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek. “At the end of the day, I simply feel that a fresh perspective and new voice will be beneficial for the team. Dallas has handled himself with class and character through a difficult season, and we wish him the best in the future.”
Eakins previously served as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers from 2013 to 2015. This was his eighth season with the Ducks organization, having served as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, from 2015 to 2019.
The Ducks have not announced an interim or permanent replacement for Eakins. This is the first NHL head coaching vacancy of the 2023 offseason, with other expiring contracts including Washington’s Peter Laviolette and New Jersey’s Lindy Ruff, as noted by Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic.
Despite their recent struggles, Anaheim’s next head coach will be leading with a stronger, more developed foundation in place. They’ll have the benefit of a more experienced Trevor Zegras, who led the Ducks with 65 points in 81 games this season.
The Ducks will also have defenseman Jamie Drysdale returning from injury next season. The team’s first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft played just eight games in 2022-23 before a shoulder injury ended his campaign.
Their talented young core will also receive a big boost this offseason, with the team now guaranteed a top-three pick in the stacked 2023 draft thanks to their last-place finish. With a new head coach in place, the Ducks will look to return to competitiveness in the near future. For this offseason, though, the focus rests on finding the right voice to lead the third generation of Ducks stars after Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne, Ryan Getzlaf, and Corey Perry in the right direction.
Pittsburgh Penguins Fire Ron Hextall, Brian Burke
The Pittsburgh Penguins have relieved president of hockey operations Brian Burke, general manager Ron Hextall, and assistant general manager Chris Pryor of their duties, the team said in a release Friday morning.
Pittsburgh’s changes in leadership come after the team missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2006, done in by a 5-2 loss to the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks in their final game on home ice this season. The firings come as no surprise, given the team’s questionable approach to the trade deadline and their status as the oldest team in the league.
The search for new leadership in Pittsburgh will begin immediately, the team said. The interim management group will consist of director of hockey operations Alec Schall, AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton general manager Erik Heasley, and hockey operations analyst Andy Saucier. Head coach Mike Sullivan will also be involved, per the team.
John Henry and Tom Werner of Pittsburgh’s ownership, Fenway Sports Group, had this to say:
We are grateful to Brian, Ron, and Chris for their contributions to the organization over the past two seasons, but we feel that the team will benefit from new hockey operations leadership. While this season has been disappointing, we believe in our core group of players and the goal of contending for the Stanley Cup has not changed.
Pittsburgh’s next general manager will be given an important task: guiding the team through the twilight years of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. All three are signed through at least 2025, and given they’re all still playing at elite levels, the team will undoubtedly do whatever it can to surround them with talent. It’s unlikely the team enters a rebuild before at least two out of their core three retire.
While the team does have some undesirable anchor contracts, they have a fair amount of roster flexibility to retool in free agency this off-season. The team has $17.15MM coming off the books in unrestricted free agents, including Jason Zucker and Brian Dumoulin, but they’ll also need to either extend Tristan Jarry or decide to let him walk. While he’s posted solid numbers in recent years, injuries continue to plague a promising career, and the team could opt to shop for a different starting goalie in free agency or on the trade market.
Those are the types of dilemmas the new regime in Pittsburgh will have to solve, aiming to inject some life into a team that’s grown stagnant over the past few seasons. Pittsburgh has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since 2018 when they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in six games. It’s a trend growing reminiscent of the mid-2010s Detroit Red Wings, who sustained three consecutive first-round losses to end a 25-year postseason streak.
Hextall departs his post as GM after just two and a half seasons. He and Burke were hired to replace Jim Rutherford on February 9, 2021.
Rangers Sign Filip Chytil To Four Year Contract
The New York Rangers have announced that they have signed Filip Chytil to a four-year contract. The 23-year-old has 22 goals and 20 assists in 66 games in his sixth season with the Rangers. The four-year deal will kick in next season with a reported average annual value of $4.4375MM.
Chytil has had a breakout this season as he has already set career highs in goals, assists and points, dwarfing his previous career highs. The 2017 first round pick was set to be a restricted free agent this summer and would have been arbitration eligible. With this signing, Rangers General Manager Chris Drury has nearly locked up his entire core for the foreseeable future. Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, Mika Zibanejad, Artemi Panarin and Igor Shesterkin are also locked into long term deals, meaning that the Rangers should be a perennial contender in the Eastern Conference for quite some time.
While Chytil is now seen as somewhat of a rising star in New York, this wasn’t always the case. In the five years before this season, he hadn’t been able to top 23 points, and last season his goal total had dropped to just eight. If Chytil can replicate this season’s production going forward his contract could become a huge bargain, however, should his production drop more in line with his first five NHL seasons his contract could be viewed as an overpayment. Given Chytil’s age, and recent production, it was likely an easy gamble for Drury and the Rangers to make, even if his production does tail off, the salary cap is likely to rise in the upcoming seasons.
Avalanche Sign Jared Bednar To Contract Extension
The Colorado Avalanche (Twitter link) have signed head coach Jared Bednar to a three-year contract extension. Bednar is in his seventh season as the team’s bench boss, and helped get them to a Stanley Cup championship last season. He has helped players like Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen grow from skilled youngsters to superstar talents in that time.
Chris Johnston of TSN added that the contract will keep him with the team through the 2026-27 season, meaning he was already signed through next season.
Financial terms of coaching contracts are rarely given in detail, but TSN’s Darren Dreger reports Bednar will earn just shy of $5MM during the three-year contract extension.
Bednar has helped guide the team from the literal bottom to the top of the NHL world. His arrival with the Avalanche was just before the 2016-17 season began as previous head coach Patrick Roy gave up his position on the eve of training camp. The Avalanche had an abysmal 22-56-4 record in Bednar’s first season, but stuck by him and the team has not missed the postseason since.
After a few promising seasons ended in playoff heartbreak, the Avalanche finally won a championship last season following an incredible regular season that saw them go 56-19-7.
Bednar has done impressive work once again this season. The Avalanche nursed a bit of a Stanley Cup hangover early in the season but despite long-term injuries to key players like Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, Bowen Byram and Josh Manson, they are just one point back of the Central Division lead.
After his tough first season in Colorado, the Avalanche have been one of the best teams in the league for the past six years. With Bednar behind the bench, they promise to be among the NHL’s elite for the next four seasons.
Philadelphia Flyers Fire Chuck Fletcher
The Philadelphia Flyers have announced this morning that they have released Chuck Fletcher from his duties as President of Hockey Operations and General Manager.
In addition, former Flyer Daniel Briere has been named Interim General Manager while the team begins the process of permanently filling two separate positions: a President of Hockey Operations and a General Manager, indicating that the team is pursuing the split structure that other clubs, such as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens, have employed.
Dave Scott, Chairman of Comcast Spectacor and Governor of the Philadelphia Flyers, issued the following statement, that begins:
The Philadelphia Flyers organization has always been defined by grit, determination, and a standard of excellence. Over the past several seasons, our team simply has not lived up to that standard, so today, we will begin to chart a new path forward under a new leadership structure for Hockey Operations.
The full statement can be read in the team’s release. While circumstances outside of the organization’s control have definitely played a part in the Flyers’ struggles in recent seasons, the fact that this change has ultimately been made should not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed Philadelphia recently.
Fletcher was originally hired by the Flyers to replace former general manager Ron Hextall, whose patient, sometimes overly passive approach to team-building was believed to be holding the Flyers back. At that point, led by Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, and some ascending young players, the club believed that they had all the right ingredients (and the right head coach in Alain Vigneault) to win them hockey glory.
That belief held some merit, as the Flyers nearly made it to the Eastern Conference Final in the “bubble” playoffs in 2019-20 before ultimately falling to the New York Islanders. That belief that their club was on the cusp of true Stanley Cup contention, however reasonable at the time, proved to be the underlying mistake that inspired much of what went wrong in Fletcher’s tenure.
When the wheels fell off in 2020-21 and the team stumbled out of the playoff picture, it was despite their intention on competing, and so although the team had disappointed, the organization remained steadfast in their belief that true contention was not far away. This led to some questionable team-building decisions that, while undoubtedly made as part of a collaborative effort on behalf of multiple decision-makers in the organization, ultimately are Fletcher’s responsibility as he was at the top of hockey operations.
It began in the summer of 2019, when the Flyers signed career second-line center Kevin Hayes to a seven-year, $7.14MM AAV contract.
Hayes had reached the 20-goal mark just once in the five seasons prior to signing the mega-deal, with 25 goals in 2017-18 with the New York Rangers. He had hovered around 2o goals multiple times, but hardly had warranted a long-term contract, but the Flyers were desperate for a scoring center.
Hayes had a solid first season in Philadelphia, with 23 goals and 18 assists for 41 points in 69 games, but did not take the offensive leap the Flyers were hoping for. Hayes has struggled to stay healthy since that first season, appearing in less than 60 games the next two years, but has rebounded a bit with 17 goals and 32 assists for 49 points in 64 games.
With three seasons left on that contract, Hayes is now looking like an odd man out in Philadelphia, although the large hit against the cap will make moving him a difficult task.
In 2021, the Flyers acquired defenseman Ryan Ellis from the Nashville Predators, taking on a contract with a $6.2MM AAV running through the 2026-27 season. Ellis has played just four games for the Flyers, and has missed the entire current season due to injury.
The trade for Ellis saw center Nolan Patrick, the No. 2 overall pick in 2017, shipped out for a quick fix on the blueline. Ellis had been a strong member of a stout Nashville Predators blueline for a few years, and on paper looked to be a strong acquisition for Philadelphia.
Ellis surely would have aided in making the Flyers a more difficult team to play against, and his absence hasn’t made things easier.
Another move that has resulted in a highly paid player not producing as much as the team would like was the trade for forward Cam Atkinson from the Columbus Blue Jackets for forward Jakub Voracek. Atkinson brought a lower cap hit to the Flyers, but has missed the entire season due to injury.
Another move made for a defenseman in the summer of 2021 brought Rasmus Ristolainen from the Buffalo Sabres. The Flyers signed Ristolainen to a five-year contract with an AAV of $5.1MM. Ristolainen has been on the ice for the Flyers, but hasn’t provided much of an impact, especially offensively with just two goals and 12 assists for 14 points this season.
Fletcher’s legacy with the Flyers is the construction of an expensive roster that has performed nowhere near expectations. The Flyers are in a tough spot, as they stare down the abyss of a potential rebuild while also boasting some solid talent depth on the roster, although much of that depth is signed to long-term contracts that would be difficult to part with.
It will be interesting to see how Briere moves into the role, as he is likely auditioning for a chance to be involved with the Flyers’ hockey operations decision-making moving forward.