Former New York Rangers defenseman Tom Laidlaw remembers hearing Gerard Gallant talking at a press conference in Las Vegas about how players need the opportunity to make an occasional mistake.

The 20-second sound bite stuck with him.

"If a young player is worried about getting benched or being sent down, that is all he is thinking about," Laidlaw said. "Now, if he isn't working hard enough that's a different story. But you have to be able to make some mistakes. I played with (Wayne) Gretzky and he made some mistakes. I saw Larry Robinson make mistakes and Ray Bourque made mistakes. If you are going to try to make plays, you will make mistakes."

When the Rangers recently began interviewing coaching candidates, Laidlaw knew immediately he wanted Gallant to land the job. He believed Gallant could aid the development of some of the younger Rangers, while also bringing a grittier style of hockey to the team.

One reason why the Rangers fired team president John Davidson, general manager Gorton and coach David Quinn was because owner James Dolan didn't like seeing his team pushed around as often as it was this past season.

Gallant has an old school approach in that regard. In his playing career, Gallant amassed 1,674 penalty minutes. He had as many as 254 penalty minutes in a single season. He remains popular in Detroit because he served as a 30-goal scorer and bodyguard for Steve Yzerman in the 1980s.

This is the right hire for the Rangers. Gallant has proven, especially in Vegas, that he knows how to build team chemistry and mold players into a winning unit. The work he did to help the Golden Knights believe in themselves was exceptional.

The only worry about Gallant is that he appears to have a limited shelf life. For whatever reason, he didn't last three full seasons at any of his previous stops. In Columbus, Florida and Vegas, he was fired in the midst of his third season.

He's either very unlucky or he wears out his welcome.

"You never hear him publicly trying to prove what a great coach he is," Laidlaw said. "I remember that first year when they were knocking off teams in the playoffs, reporters would ask what changes he would make for the next opponent, and he said: 'We aren't going to make any changes. This is how we play.' It wasn't about him trying to explain why he is a good coach. It was about the players going out to play."

Don't look for the Rangers to add a bunch of tough guys. They still need the roster spots for their younger players to develop. Gallant was not an NHL heavyweight. He was 5-foot-10 on a tall day, and certainly didn't top 200 pounds. But he was a bulldog.

He will just teach the Rangers to stand up for themselves, to push back when they are being assaulted. If Washington's Tom Wilson comes after a Rangers player, Gallant will expect everyone on the team to push back.

Team toughness is always preferable to a few tough guys. And exceptional team chemistry is even better than team toughness. But you something going if you have both. And Gallant seems to know how to create both.