Jump to content

Gallant named new Rangers Coach


Recommended Posts

New York Rangers hire Gerard Gallant as new coach, source says

  •  

The New York Rangers have hired Gerard Gallant as their next head coach, a source confirmed to ESPN on Monday. Gallant received a four-year contract.

 

Gallant, 57, was the first coach of the Vegas Golden Knights and led them to an unlikely Stanley Cup Final berth in its inaugural season (2017-18). Gallant was fired in January 2020 and replaced by Peter DeBoer -- formerly coach of the Golden Knights' then-biggest rivals, the San Jose Sharks.

 

Gallant spent the past year off from coaching in the NHL. He recently led Team Canada to a gold medal at the IIHF World Championships -- a huge accomplishment considering the team began the tournament 0-3.

Coach of Year Winners Hired by Rangers

nyr.png&w=110&h=110

Gerard Gallant will be the sixth head coach to win the Jack Adams Award (introduced in the 1973-74 season) for the NHL's coach of the year and eventually coach the Rangers. Four of the previous five went on to coach the Rangers in a playoff game.

COACH PLAYOFFS?
-- ESPN Stats & Information
Gerard Gallant ?
Alain Vigneault Yes
John Tortorella Yes
Glen Sather No
Mike Keenan Yes
Fred Shero Yes

Gallant has a 270-216-4-51 career record over nine NHL seasons as a head coach, also spending time behind the bench for the Columbus Blue Jackets and Florida Panthers. He was the Jack Adams Award winner for coach of the year in 2018 with Vegas.

 

"Turk [Gerard Gallant] was such an amazing coach," Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault told ESPN last week. "He brought a misfit team to the Stanley Cup playoffs and to the Stanley Cup Final. He was an All-Star that year, and the year after that he was going to be at All-Star again. It just caught everyone by surprise. But it just shows how unstable the hockey world can be."

 

The Rangers fired coach David Quinn and three of his assistant coaches in May. Goalie coach Benoit Allaire was the only assistant retained. Quinn, who was hired away from Boston University, had just finished the third of a five-year deal with the Rangers. Quinn was tasked with ushering the Rangers through the rebuild, though ownership grew impatient when the team missed the playoffs this season.

 

General manager Jeff Gorton and team president John Davidson were also let go in May. Former player Chris Drury has since been promoted, holding both the GM and president roles.

 

The Rangers were one of the youngest teams in the NHL last season, and they are building around a strong core. New York has totally turned over from the team that made it to the 2014 Stanley Cup Final. Chris Kreider is the only remaining player on the roster from that team.

 

The Rangers landed the No. 2 pick of the 2019 draft (Kaapo Kakko) and the No. 1 pick in 2020 (Alexis Lafrenière).

 

The team is excited about several other foundational players, including defenseman Adam Fox, who is a finalist for the Norris Trophy this season, and star winger Artemi Panarin, a finalist for the Hart Trophy in 2020.

 

At their end-of-season news conferences, many Rangers players alluded to new pressures for 2021-22.

 

"That message has been sent and received," forward Ryan Strome said. "We've just got to get into the playoffs."

The New York Post first reported news of Gallant's hiring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interested to see what he can do with this young Rangers team.

Gallant seems to have a pretty good track record in getting young teams (Florida) and "castoff" players (Vegas) to pull in the same direction into a competitive cohesive unit.

Rangers are good, should get better, but sorely lacking in experience and "winning ways" for the most part.
Gallant could be a big ingredient towards curing that.

Some stuff has been made of his mysterious departures (twice!) from his previous employment with teams and I do wonder if whatever behind the scenes stuff that may have gone on before would rear its head in New York.
The media and fan scrutiny will surely be many times more than Sunrise, FL, and while Vegas has the eye of many, there simply aren't many media markets with quite the same microscope as New York.

So if there are any shenanigans, I would suspect it could become a huge distraction towards making the Rangers a contender.

But for here and now, looks like probably the right man for the Rangers at this time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Some stuff has been made of his mysterious departures (twice!) from his previous employment with teams and I do wonder if whatever behind the scenes stuff that may have gone on before would rear its head in New York.

 

Yeah.   That's probably the only part that gives me hesitation, because he's seemed to be very good in both spots and then suddenly separated.  No idea what's behind the scenes there, but I agree with your assessment that if whatever it is emerges again in NYC that this time the world will know what it is.

 

I think it's a terrific hire barring that potential pitfall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...