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Gerard Gallant on coaching future: ‘I’m far from done’

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Darren Dreger, Keith Jones, and Mike Milbury react to the abrupt firing of Gerard Gallant in Las Vegas and detail what things might look like for the Golden Knights under new head coach Peter DeBoer.

The Vegas Golden Knights decision to fire coach Gerard Gallant this past week came as a shock to pretty much everyone across the NHL, and that of course includes Gallant himself.

Gallant told his hometown paper, the Journal Pioneer on Saturday that he was “quite surprised” by the Golden Knights’ decision and that it isn’t too popular with him.

“You don’t see something coming like that when you have two-and-a-half years in. I was disappointed and surprised, but I understand the hockey business and things have to change sometimes. They made a tough decision and I’m sure it was tough on them, but that’s the way hockey is.”

Given the nature of the NHL’s coaching carousel it seems to be a given that Gallant will be back behind a bench at sometime in the near future. He told the Journal Pioneer that he “definitely” still wants to coach and that he is “far from done.”

Under Gallant’s watch the Golden Knights were the most successful NHL expansion team of the modern era with a 118-75-20 regular season record in two-and-a-half seasons. They made the playoffs in each of his first two full seasons and made a stunning run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season. Even though they were on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture at the time of the coaching change they were still just one point out of a playoff spot and only three points out of first place in the Pacific Division.

The Golden Knights are 1-0-1 in the two games since the coaching change. Given the way they have played at 5-on-5 this season there is every reason to believe they can turn their season around after a slow start as long as they get more consistent goaltending.

Perhaps the most interesting comment from Gallant in his interview was how he and the NHL were going to handle the 2020 All-Star Game. Gallant had initially been announced as the head coach for the Pacific Division team, but his dismissal from the Golden Knights put that into question. Gallant said he and the league talked about how to handle the situation and that the NHL left it up to him on whether or not he wanted to participate. In the end he decided he would not have been comfortable going.

The NHL named Arizona Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet as the replacement.

You can read Gallant’s entire interview here.

MORE GALLANT FIRING COVERAGE:
Golden Knights fire Gallant, hire Peter DeBoer
Golden Knights’ Gallant firing seems like short-sighted, knee-jerk reaction
Gallant replaced by Rick Tocchet at 2020 NHL All-Star Game

Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.