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Golden Knights fire Gallant, will Yzerman call?

January 15, 2020, 12:10 PM ET [20 Comments]
Jeremy Laura
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The reality of Detroit’s season is that it is, almost by design, a lost season. After last night’s embarrassment on Long Island, the feeling was “unsteady as she goes”. And then, the Las Vegas Golden Knights fired a really good coach. This is a bizarre twist that I didn’t see coming.

Las Vegas had a more than “ideal” opening season. The fact that the team made it to the cup final caught everyone off guard. Last year’s loss to San Jose caused a virtual meltdown from ownership as a major penalty that many thought shouldn’t have been called as well as goals that were “questionable”, saw the team take an early exit.

This year, the team hasn’t been nearly as dominant. Gallant tried to switch from “man to man” coverage to zone coverage to help the defense be under less strain. However, Vegas is moving on from the coach that helped them achieve (or overachieve) so much success already. The expectation is sky high for the new team (similar to the Florida Panthers inaugural season). This may end up being a huge mistake for the franchise.

On the receiving end, it’s hard to imagine that somewhere a club isn’t about to fire the 8th coach of the season. Gallant was able to stabilize a group that had never played together (though Marc Andre Fleury did a lot to help stabilize as well) and it’s hard to imagine GMs aren’t scrambling to call him. Is Steve Yzerman among them?

I’ve opined more than once that Yzerman was likely looking outside of the current pool of available coaches. I believe that will change. A former Red Wing himself, Gallant checks a lot of boxes. Even if Yzerman reaches out, it’s hard to imagine the change would come quickly. The All Star Break will be an interesting time for conversations to happen. Detroit has been keen to bring former players back into the fold during this rebuild. Lidstrom has been around quite a bit, McCarty is doing public events, Kronwall is still involved. There are so many easy ways to see why Gallant could be a fit.

It’s no guarantee, and I still think Blashill will be at the helm for most of, in not all of, the rest of this season. If a coaching change is coming, it will be pre draft for certain. Probably right after clean out day unless there are a lot of competing teams for the candidate.

We’ll keep an eye out to see how this affects the Red Wings going forward. It is an exciting possibility to be sure. Lend your voice to the comments, would love to hear your point of view!
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