I had breakfast with him the day before he left for Vegas this summer.”Īfter a forgettable time as an assistant for two years with the New York Islanders, he returned to Summerside and sat out a year. It’s funny, I mean, it didn’t faze our relationship. “He was terrific, obviously, and we’ve stayed great friends since. “It was as bad as any I’ve had,” MacLean said. The owner made me fire him,” MacLean said. Gallant coached 142 games, going 56-76-10 until one fateful day when MacLean had to axe his old friend. MacLean would ultimately replace King with himself, then replaced himself with Gallant in 2004. It was valuable experience.”ĭuring the 1980s, Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant (left) & Steve Yzerman were a potent scoring pair with the Detroit Red Wings. “I really think working for an expansion team at that time really set me up for this job in Vegas. Dave was one of the best coaches of his time when it came to video and preparation. Dave King, as a young coach coming in with only a couple years as a minor-league assistant or Tier junior coaching experience, he was the perfect coach to learn from. “I really had to learn how people went about things. “So, I was really learning on the job,” Gallant said. He was an assistant just one year in the now-defunct IHL, then was an assistant just one year in the AHL. He returned home to PEI to coach in the Maritime League and led the team to a championship in 1997. He hired Dave King as his first coach, but he brought his old pal and student, Gallant, in to be an assistant.Īt the time, Gallant didn’t have a lot of coaching experience. And that’s what you like about him.”Īfter getting fired as the Panthers’ coach in 1998, MacLean was hired to steer the ship of the expansion Blue Jackets as general manager. “He hasn’t changed since he was 10 years of age. And he was really, really well-respected in the dressing room. His skating was average, but he had tremendous hockey sense and he had tremendous character. That was the one thing that always jumped out. He was a really solid, solid player … you know, smart, great hockey sense. “He was an NHL All-Star, scored 30 goals (four) times if you look at his run. “He was a hard-nosed winger that played the bulk of his career with Steve Yzerman,” MacLean said. Gallant worked MacLean’s hockey school for a decade, and in Detroit, MacLean coached Gallant, the man lovingly known as “Turk,” for a few years as Bryan Murray’s assistant. He played every sport and he was a terrific athlete. He was a great hockey player, he was a great ball player, he was a great football player. He was a terrific athlete, I mean a terrific athlete. MacLean said Gallant was a “terrific kid. (Credit: Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images)
The fan sitting behind them may not be impressed, but Doug MacLean and Gerard Gallant’s relationship traces back long before the days they shared together on the bench in Columbus. So, I figured if I can’t be a hockey player, how about a postman? “Everybody knew I wanted to be a hockey player.
“I hated school,” Gallant, laughing hard, said during a fun chat with The Athletic. He went on to star for Sherbrooke in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings, spent years as Steve Yzerman’s winger and went on to carve out a 211-goal, 1,674-penalty minute, 615-game NHL playing career and seven-year head-coaching career with Columbus, Florida and now Vegas. “I said, ‘I think you should work on your hockey a little more.’” “I remember when I did a little exercise in my class, asking everybody what they wanted to be when they finish school and he put down he wanted to be a postman. “Umm, I would say he was more interested in hockey,” MacLean, the former Florida Panthers coach and Columbus Blue Jackets president, general manager and coach, said with perfect comedic timing during a phone interview with The Athletic.
Gallant was 16 years old, the same year Gallant racked up 60 goals and 115 points playing Maritime Junior A hockey for the Summerside Crystals.
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