The Vegas Golden Knights made the right move naming Gerard Gallant as teams first Head Coach.
The wait is finally over Vegas Golden Knights fans. Months of speculation on who will become the first Head Coach in the expansion franchise has come to an end. Today, Owner Bill Foley and General Manager George McPhee introduced Gerard Gallant as the teams inaugural Head Coach.
Gallant is an experienced Head Coach and is well-known around the league especially for the work he put into the 15-16 Florida Panthers. Although he didn’t win the Jack Adams, he was a finalist after leading the Panthers to a division title. However, Gallants time in Florida came to an abrupt end in 16-17.
The Panthers went 11-9-1 under Gallant thus getting told he was fired and had to leave in a taxi. Let me just say this, what the Florida Panthers did to Gallant was awful. There’s better ways to fire someone than forcing him to catch a taxi ride.
Now McPhee made it clear in today’s introductory press conference that he will let Gallant coach however he wants with no limitations. You can watch today’s presser here:
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LIVE NOW: Vegas Golden Knights introducing Gerard Gallant as the team's first ever head coach. LIKE and SHARE with friends.Get more on his background at http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/35137478/vegas-golden-knights-to-introduce-gallant-as-head-coach-thursday
Posted by FOX5 Las Vegas on Thursday, April 13, 2017
After watching the press conference, you can already see there’s a good relationship in place between McPhee and Gallant. That’s an important aspect to becoming a successful franchise. But what else does Gallant bring and whats his coaching style like?
Gallant’s coached teams usually play more of a balanced type of attack which means we’ll probably get pretty much everything when we see Golden Knights games next year. He won’t use that boring and awful 1-3-1 system Senators Head Coach Guy Boucher uses but we’ll see more excitement from a Gallant coached team. And it’s important that Vegas went that route because you have to attract locals and new fans to games rather than putting them to sleep.
"“Being named the first head coach in Vegas Golden Knights history is such a tremendous opportunity and one I am extremely grateful for,” said Vegas Golden Knights Head Coach Gerard Gallant. “There is a great deal of excitement in the hockey community regarding what is happening with the Golden Knights and I am glad to now be a part of the team. We have a state-of-the-art practice facility being constructed, a world class home arena and from what I’ve heard, a very passionate and engaged fan base. I look forward to seeing that enthusiasm first hand and will work with George and the rest of the hockey operations staff to ice a team that Golden Knights fans will be proud to support.” -Gerard Gallant"
Gallant is a fan of using analytics to coach games. He himself said it’s not everything, but it’s a tool he uses. The downside to Gallant is he could be brutally honest some of the time. He may come off as a hard *ss like he said in today’s press conference, but that’s just how he is.
With six years of head coaching split between the Blue Jackets and Panthers, he collected a record of 152-140-4-31. The numbers aren’t impressive, but I don’t think he was ready to coach an NHL team at the time. However, the amount of praise that McPhee shown to Gallant today was very classy.
"In the eight months of vetting we didn't hear a negative word about Gerard." -McPhee
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) April 13, 2017
"We are delighted that Gerard picked us, and we were able to pick him." -McPhee
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) April 13, 2017
Next: Vegas Golden Knights Mock Expansion Draft 1.0
So what do you think Golden Knights fans? Do you think it was the right for the Golden Knights? Personally, I thought it was the right decision. Gallant and his team promises to bring a hard-working type of effort every night. As a fan of the game, Golden Knights should absolutely thrilled with this hire.