Latest news with #GerardGallant
New York Post
17-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Former Rangers coach Gerard Gallant headed to Russia for mystery KHL role
Former Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant is headed overseas. Gallant is set to coach in the KHL, according to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun, though it was not revealed which team in the Russian pro league he'll be joining. The 61-year-old spent two years with the Blueshirts, leading the Rangers to a 52-24-6 mark in his first season en route to a surprising upset over the Hurricanes in the conference semifinals in 2021-22. Gallant at a press conference on May 3, 2023. Robert Sabo for NY Post In his second season at the helm, Gallant's squad went 47-22-13 for 107 points, but flamed out against the Devils in a seven-game, first-round series that hastened his exit. He hasn't been able to land a head-coaching gig stateside since. The Rangers haven't exactly found their rock in the following seasons, moving on from Peter Laviolette this past offseason after his two seasons on Broadway. They hope longtime Penguins coach Mike Sullivan will be the answer as he prepares for his first go-round with the team. In parts of 11 NHL seasons, Gallant has put together a 369-262-4-70 mark, spending time behind the benches with the Blue Jackets, Panthers and Golden Knights before coming to New York. He was famously fired by Florida in 2016 after an 11-10-1 start which saw him getting into a cab outside PNC Arena in Raleigh following a loss to the Hurricanes. Gallant in the Rangers bench during a game against the Coyotes. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST Gallant is not the first former Rangers head coach to move to the KHL: Mike Keenan, coach of the 1994 Stanley Cup-winning team, won the KHL championship with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2014.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Michael Peca Leaves Rangers To Join Blackhawks' Caching Staff
Assistant coach Michael Peca will not return to the New York Rangers as he's set to join the Chicago Blackhawks. Gerard Gallant Reportedly Still Looking To Prove Rangers' Past Failures Were Not Entirely His Fault Over two years after the New York Rangers fired him, Gerard Gallant is still searching for another head coaching job. This news comes on the same day that the Blackhawks officially hired Jeff Blashill to be the team's head coach. Peca spent the last two seasons with the Rangers under Peter Laviolette. According to Mollie Walker of The New York Post, after discussions with both Peca and new Rangers head coach Mike Sullivan, the organization felt this was the best decision for both parties. It's unclear who Sullivan expects to add as an assistant coach on his staff in New York.
CBS News
12-05-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
A few interesting names emerge in Boston Bruins head-coaching search
The Boston Bruins remain in the hunt for a new head coach, and potential candidates are beginning to emerge for the vacancy. General manager Don Sweeney said last week the process is well underway, though he's waiting on a few candidates whose teams are still playing in the NHL playoffs. In-house candidates Joe Sacco (who was 25-30-7 after replacing Jim Montgomery last season) and assistant coach Jay Leach are in the mix, though Sweeney said Boston will explore coaches with experience "at different levels" of the game. It sounds like Sweeney and company are extremely intrigued about finding the next young, bright hockey mind to come in and revamp the Bruins franchise. While a veteran coach could provide a quick fix, they might not be a long-term answer. The Bruins might be able to bounce back and return to contention in a few years with such a leader, but they could easily find themselves back in need of a reset if that veteran coach burns out before getting the team over the hump. The Bruins won't be signing Mike Sullivan, who is now in charge of the New York Rangers after being dismissed by the Pittsburgh Penguins. If Boston wants an experienced voice who might be able to come in and right the ship for a year or two, Gerard Gallant or Peter Laviolette could get a look. But new names -- and a potential favorite -- have surfaced in Boston's search for a bench leader. Rick Tocchet Head coach Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks looks on from the bench during the 2024-25 NHL season. Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images The 61-year-old Tocchet would be one of those experienced guys the Bruins could bring in, with nine seasons of head-coaching experience. He spent the last three seasons in Vancouver, and had the Canucks in the playoffs in 2023-24 after a 50-23-9 regular season. Vancouver made it to the second round that postseason, where they lost to the Edmonton Oilers in seven games. Tocchet left Vancouver after a 38-30-14 season in 2024-25. Overall, he has a 286-265-87 record as a head coach between stints with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Arizona Coyotes, and Canucks. Tocchet is 11-11 in his playoff career with a pair of series wins, but his teams have never advanced out of the second round. Tocchet does have a pair of Stanley Cup rings, which he won as an assistant coach in Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017. Jimmy Murphy recently reported that Boston is trying hard to get an interview with Tocchet, and he'd immediately become their top candidate if he sits down with the team. Tocchet has a couple connections to Boston, including two seasons in a Bruins sweater (1995-96 and 1996-97) during his 18-year playing career. He was teammates with both Sweeney and Bruins president Cam Neeley at that time. The big question will become whether or not the Bruins are willing to pay up to bring Tocchet to Boston. The Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, and Seattle Kraken are all expected to pursue Tocchet this offseason, and he could land one of the top coaching deals this summer. Misha Donskov Dallas Stars assistant coach Misha Donskov handles bench during the 2024-25 NHL season. Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images When Sweeney referenced a coach who is still handling matters in the NHL playoffs, he could have been talking about Dallas Stars assistant Misha Donskov. The 48-tear-old is in his second season as an assistant in Dallas, with the Stars currently up 2-1 on the top-seeded Winnipeg Jets in the second round. Before joining the coaching staff in Dallas, Donskov spent seven years with the Vegas Golden Knights; the first three years as director of hockey ops and four seasons as an assistant coach. He was hired to the Vegas staff before the franchise even existed and helped the team's front office build the roster from the ground up, which made the Stanley Cup Final in its first season as a franchise. Donskov was on Bruce Cassidy's coaching staff when Vegas won the Stanley Cup in 2023. Donskov also has experience in the OHL, where he served as an assistant for the London Knights from 2009-12 . He won an OHL championship in his final season with the club. Donskov has been praised around the NHL for his work in scouting and player development, and would make a lot of sense for a Bruins team looking to restart. He also has a connection to Sweeney, and it's a lot more recent than sharing the B's dressing room in the mid 90s. Donskov was an assistant on Team Canada's coaching staff during the 4 Nations Face Off (a staff led by Jon Cooper and also featured Tocchet), which was put together by Sweeney, Canada's GM for the tournament. Marco Sturm Coach Marco Sturm of Los Angeles Kings during the 2019-20 NHL season. Andrew D. Bernstein/NHLI via Getty Images The former Bruins player doesn't have any NHL head-coaching experience, but he has a solid record on the bench at a number of other levels. He's been at the helm of the Ontario Reign -- the L.A. Kings' AHL affiliate -- for the last three seasons and led them to a 119-80-17 record. Sturm also coached Germany in the Olympics from 2015-18, and won a Silver Medal in 2018. Sturm does have some experience on an NHL bench, too. He was an assistant coach in Los Angeles from 2018-22 before he earned the head gig for the Reign. Sturm played 302 of his 938 NHL games in Boston (remember his walk-off overtime winner to end the first Winter Classic at Fenway Park in 2010) and it sounds like the Bruins have a legit interest in him becoming the team's next head coach. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported last week Sturm is "under serious consideration" for the position. Marc Savard Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube (L) chats with assistant coach Marc Savard (right) during the 2024-25 NHL season. Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images Savard was a star playmaker and fan favorite in Boston from 2006-11 before concussions brought a premature end to his playing career. He has become a rising coaching candidate over the last several years. After serving as an assistant for the St. Louis Blues from 2019-20, "Savvy" was the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL from 2021-23. He won 44 games in each of his two seasons on the bench, and the Spitfires lost in the title round of the playoffs in 2022. They lost in the first round in 2023. Savard has since been an assistant coach with the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs. He was in charge of Toronto's power play last season, which was the ninth-best in the NHL. The Bruins converted on just 15.2 percent of their power plays last season, which ranked 29th in the league. Like Donskov, Savard's team is still going in the NHL playoffs, with the Leafs currently locked in a 2-2 series tie with the Florida Panthers in the second round. So the Bruins would have to wait to chat with Savard about a potential return to Boston to become the team's next head coach.
New York Times
05-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
New York Rangers come up small in a big spot once again
NEWARK, N.J. — A slow start. A key short-handed goal against. No ability to break through. A shutout loss here, against the rival Devils, that carried plenty of importance and heralded some change. Oh, sorry — was just reminiscing about Game 7 of the 2023 first round. That night in Newark, a 4-0 loss by the Rangers ended a disappointing season, Patrick Kane's brief time in New York and Gerard Gallant's coaching tenure in a dud of a finale. Advertisement There were some similar feelings after a similar game on Saturday afternoon. This most recent 4-0 loss to the Devils doesn't slam the door on this wretched 2024-25 for the Rangers, nor does it necessarily seal Peter Laviolette's fate as coach. You and I have seen far too many games this season where the Rangers played way, way worse to think that this Saturday afternoon letdown was something shocking or unexpected. But it had a lot of the hallmarks of that Game 7 a little less than two years ago. The Rangers looked old that night, much slower than a Devils team that played aggressively and with structure to deny the Rangers' seemingly high-powered lineup, as it did winning four of the last five games in that series after the Rangers dominated Games 1 and 2 here, making it look like it was going to be a cakewalk. The Rangers are still very much in the thick of the race for the final wild-card spot with six games to go, regardless of the outcome of the Canadiens' game with the Flyers on Saturday night. But a team that's gone 2 for its last 43 on the power play and been outscored by the opposing penalty kill 3-2 in that monthlong span doesn't feel like it's in the thick of anything, except the deep recesses of its players' own heads. Who would have ever thought that confidence would be an issue with this power play, one that's been among the best the last three years? J.T. Miller subbed in for Chris Kreider on the top unit and that group did generate a handful of good looks on the Rangers' first power-play chance, but on the second, all four forwards were caught below the hash marks and the Devils raced up three on one. Jesper Bratt buried Nico Hischier's feed for a 2-0 Jersey lead — Timo Meier had scored four seconds into the Devils' lone power play, just to rub a little lemon juice in that paper cut — and that was really it. The Devils had just 16 shots on Igor Shesterkin, so the Rangers defended pretty well. They just didn't do enough at the other end and that has been the way it's gone too many nights this season: Either the Rangers are clicking on offense and neglect their own end, leaving Shesterkin to save the day, or they commit to staying in shooting and passing lanes, stay with their men in the D zone and generate next to nothing. Advertisement 'It seems like that, right?' said Adam Fox. 'When we know our offense is going, I think it tends to maybe make us think we're just playing all offense and give up some heavy chances. And when we're defending well, we're only thinking about defending really well. It does right now seem like it's one or the other.' That's not a winning formula. The last time the Rangers were here was just before Christmas, when everything was going wrong; the 5-0 shelling they took that day was just another horrid performance in a month filled with them. But on Saturday, the Rangers had lots to play for. They came in two points behind the Canadiens, having won two in a row after losing five of six. You would have thought that scenario would bring out the best in the Rangers, even after the season that's transpired. Instead, they generated one shot attempt in the first 8:40 of the game. It went wide, in case you were wondering. They did warm to the task in this one and had a couple pucks in prime scoring spots, 'zone one' as Laviolette called it. Kreider fumbled away a chance gifted by Jacob Markstrom; Will Cuylle fumbled one away in a similar spot just before Meier scored again to make it 3-0. That first power play had a couple of its best looks in weeks, all foiled by Markstrom. Jacob Markstrom shuts out the New York Rangers out for the SECOND time this season 🧱 Joining some ELITE company 😤 — ESPN (@espn) April 5, 2025 Whatever this Rangers team needs this season, no one is able to deliver consistently. Brennan Othmann and Gabe Perreault each got regular top-six shifts through two periods and Perreault got some power-play time but neither right now is a difference-maker who can put this team on his back. Cuylle, who looked like he might hit the 25-goal mark this season, has two in his last 17 games. Advertisement The Devils, meanwhile, have become a stingy team since Jack Hughes was lost for the season a month ago. Their top guys, Hischier, Bratt and Meier, are two-way players who don't gamble much and create offense from being hounds defensively. The Rangers don't have that. Mika Zibanejad's shell of his former self leaves the Rangers without a true 200-foot player. Miller and Vincent Trocheck are responsible guys who can also score, but neither has the speed or quickness to play the way the Devils' top guys do. You live with Artemi Panarin's gambles because he's the most sure thing offensively that the Rangers have, so on a day like Saturday when there isn't much room either way, it falls to someone else to get a greasy one. The Devils look like a team that understands it will take every player pulling on the rope to get somewhere. The Rangers look like a team still trying to figure it out in Game 76. Laviolette may go the same way Gallant did after that Game 7 failure two years ago. Circumstances were different: Gallant had openly feuded with GM Chris Drury after the Rangers' Game 4 loss at the Garden and Gallant wasn't Drury's top choice two years prior. Even a trip to the Eastern Conference final in 2022 wasn't enough to convince Drury that Gallant was the right coach to lead this team to a Cup. Laviolette was supposed to be the right coach and looked the part last season when the Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy and again got within two wins of a Final. But the fall has been hard and fast this season, from Drury's roster management to the players wilting and Laviolette stuck in between, unable to find the right message to get through to this group. If the axe falls in two weeks, it won't be a surprise. And it won't be as a result of this 4-0 loss on Saturday, even though it had all the hallmarks of another Rangers letdown in this building to their local rivals. The Rangers wondered back after that Game 7 how they could have failed to show up for such a big game. On Saturday, there wasn't the same quiet tension in the room after the loss. These Rangers, like you and me, have been wondering all year what the heck has happened to them. Advertisement 'I don't really have much for you,' Fox was left to say. He was talking about the power play but he could have been talking about this entire season. Saturday wasn't the start of something bad, just the latest in a long line of bad ones. And we're all left to figure out what's happened to this once-reliable team.
New York Times
20-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Diving into the Rangers' data: Bad defense, Shesterkin's greatness, Lafrenière's chances
It's incredibly difficult to get a handle on the New York Rangers from a data perspective this season, given that it's been split into three distinct parts: the good 12-4-1 start; the bad 4-15-0 skid that followed; and then, if not the ugly, the leftovers, you could say, of the 17-11-5 record since. Advertisement The Rangers (33-30-6) need a win Thursday over the Toronto Maple Leafs and a Montreal Canadiens loss at the New York Islanders to reclaim the last Eastern Conference playoff spot. Even with those results, they will need help. Thursday night's game will be the Rangers' 70th, and no other team in the standings has played more than 68 by the end of the night. Let's take a look at the first 69 games. Credit to Clear Sight Analytics, whose shift-by-shift, charted data illuminates the games in a revealing way. I've also got some data from Evolving Hockey, plus regular stats from the NHL. The Rangers have been a poor defensive team. That's not breaking news if you're even a casual fan who's watched a handful of games. But looking at the league rankings for expected goals (xG) against this season, even when broken down into the three sections above, there is a pattern that hasn't been fixed. Here is the Rangers' overall season report card: The Rangers give up way too many high-danger chances on five-on-five and on the penalty kill. They've also still not figured out how to prevent chances off the rush, either via turnovers in the neutral zone or poor reads against teams carrying the puck out of the opposing end. The inability to prevent rush chances has been a constant going back to Gerard Gallant's tenure: The Rangers ranked 28th in xG against the rush last season and 22nd the year before. When the season is sliced down into three parts, the only constant is the bad defensive numbers. Here's from the first 17-game segment: Elite offensive numbers but dreadful defensive ones. This is why general manager Chris Drury made changes. His older core was not showing any ability to prevent high-danger chances against, even with a good record. Now, here's the December slide with awful numbers everywhere: Not a shock, but these Rangers were listless, confused and out of ideas at both ends of the ice. Finally, here's the current stretch from Jan. 1 to now: Certainly better, as the results have been, but still bad. One of Clear Sight's truisms from eight seasons tracking NHL scoring-chance trends is that teams in the top 10 in preventing high-danger chances have the best odds of progressing deep into the playoffs. A team's defensive structure is paramount in the postseason. Advertisement The Rangers have had no such structure to lean on this season. As I've written often, blame can be spread around equally — to Drury, for correctly identifying that his roster needed to change but going about it in the wrong way, to Peter Laviolette for sticking to his 1-3-1 guns, chances be damned and to the players, who have been around long enough to know what works and what doesn't. There is a lack of consistency. The Rangers were awful in a 7-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets 11 days ago and then played four solid defensive games but only managed to win two of those. And then Tuesday, despite the 2-1 score, the Rangers were uncommitted to defending against the Calgary Flames, just as they've been in any of those seven- or eight-goal surrenders this season. 'I think there have been moments this season where we committed defensively but we don't score,' Mika Zibanejad said. 'That frustration lingers a bit and then maybe we push a little too much. I think (lately) we're smarter with the puck. … It's easier to spend less time in your zone when you make them have to go the full 200 feet to get in and establish something.' It sounds simple. Then again, the defense has been anything but for the Rangers all season. Igor Shesterkin won't be winning his second Vezina Trophy. Connor Hellebuyck will get the hardware and he deserves it, leading the Winnipeg Jets to the West's top record. But a dive into Clear Sight's goalie data shows Shesterkin should be a finalist if the league's general managers do the work. Here's a screenshot of Clear Sight's goalie Game Quality rankings, where a great game signifies one in which the goalie saved more than 1.5 goals above expectation, a quality game is between 0.5-1.5 GSAx, and so on down to bad games and blown games. Who's at the top with the most great games and the second-most great/quality games combined? It's Shesterkin. And take note of the third column from the right, the one headed 'Goalie Bailed Out' — where a goalie has a bad or blown game but the team still wins. Shesterkin has zero of those starts this season. Hellebuyck, the runaway Vezina winner, has been bailed out from a subpar outing eight times. Advertisement From a pure goaltending standpoint, Shesterkin has a case for the Vezina. If the Rangers get into the playoffs, he might have a case for some Hart Trophy votes too. This team is maddening and disappointing but imagine where it would be without Shesterkin. Alexis Lafrenière should be an elite NHL player by now, one who gets regular power-play minutes and regular time late in games when the Rangers need a goal. After his 28-goal, 57-point campaign in 2023-24, it seemed he was headed that way. The seven-year extension annually worth $7.45 million, signed on Oct. 25, should have cemented it. Since he put pen to paper, Lafrenière has mostly been just OK to invisible. It's not all on him, of course, but he's the young core forward left standing after Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil were traded. Since the contract, Lafrenière has 11 goals and 20 assists in 62 games. He's shuffled around the top six, even falling into some third-line duty on Tuesday. He's got two goals in his last 22 games. But more troubling is the fact that during this time his number of games with more than two shots on goal (two) is dwarfed by the number of games without a single shot on goal (seven). On Tuesday, Lafrenière didn't register a shot attempt. His overall individual attacking numbers are down from last season but still better than in any of his first three seasons: He generated 206 scoring chances for 33.6 xG last season and is now at 131 chances for 16.2 xG. The Rangers haven't generated as much this season, so that tracks, even if it's a big drop-off. The kicker, though, is that Lafrenière has already gotten more power-play time through 69 games than he did all of last season when PP1 was healthy and humming. Laviolette dropped Laf into the top unit when Chris Kreider was injured and during some other junctures during the season. Advertisement The result? Lafrenière has 19 power-play scoring chances for 1.4 xG versus 22 scoring chances for 3.96 xG last season when he almost exclusively got PP2 time. I reported last summer that the Rangers had been listening to offers for Lafrenière, which the team vehemently denied. If I hear that again this summer, don't expect such strong denials this time around. Perhaps no Rangers player has experienced a more disappointing season than Kreider, especially now that Zibanejad has righted his ship following J.T. Miller's arrival. Kreider, who's been hampered by injuries since the start of the season, should still get to 20 goals (he's got 18 now) — that's a far cry from the 127 total goals that he scored over the previous three seasons, but it's still good on this team. It's those four assists that boggle the mind. Four! Kreider averages 17 minutes, 11 seconds a game. He's been largely knocked down to third-line duty at five-on-five but he's still a well-used special-teamer, tied for second in the league with four short-handed goals. The lowest assist total for an NHL forward with at least 17 minutes per game and 60 games played in a season is six, done by two players: Ben Clymer, a depth defenseman on an epically bad 1999-2000 Tampa Bay Lightning team who went 2-6-8 in 60 games and former winger Rene Bourque, who went 18-6-24 in 76 games split between the Flames and Canadiens in 2011-12. The NHL only started keeping time-on-ice stats in 1997-98, so I can't look back further. But Kreider is certainly within reach of a truly weird NHL record. (Photo of Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin: Wendell Cruz / USA Today via Imagn Images)
