The New York Rangers announced on Saturday that they have mutually agreed to part ways with head coach Gerard Gallant.
The decision comes less than a week after the Rangers suffered a disappointing first round loss to the New Jersey Devils, prematurely ending a season that started with Stanley Cup aspirations.
That loss immediately put Gallant on the hot seat, but he seemed defiant at the suggestion that his job could be in jeopardy at his end of the season press conference.
“I can’t believe I have to answer some of these questions about me getting fired,” Gallant said this week, via the New York Post. “If I can’t stand by my record and what I’ve done, I think there’s something wrong.”
The Rangers were specific to point out that this was a “mutual” decision, but given his reaction to questions about his job security it is a good assumption that he did not drive this decision.
Gallant coached the Rangers for two years, recording a 99-46-19 regular season record.
The Rangers went on a surprising run to the Eastern Conference Final a year ago, and were considered a serious Stanley Cup contender coming into this season based on that.
Those expectations only grew when they signed Vincent Trocheck in free agency and then acquired stars Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko at the NHL trade deadline.
But the play on the ice never really matched the hype and star power on paper. The Rangers were always highly dependent on goalie Igor Shesterkin to bail them out most nights, while the team has failed to develop recent top picks like Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko into stars.
Gallant also seemed to get routinely outcoached schematically by other coaches opposite of him. But because he usually has the best goalie in a game, those shortcomings never seemed to matter.
Gallant probably was not the right coach for the Rangers, but the organization has a lot of other questions to answer for why it did not achieve its goals this year.
Like why they have failed to develop so many top-10 picks into stars, and why they felt the need to add players like Kane and Tarasenko at the deadline when they did not really fit the team’s biggest needs.
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