Former NHL coach Gerard Gallant hired by KHL’s Shanghai Dragons
A former bench boss in North America has a new gig overseas.
On Wednesday, the Shanghani Dragons of the Kontinental Hockey League officially announced that the team has hired former NHL coach Gerard Gallant as the team’s new head coach.
THE MASTER IS HERE pic.twitter.com/0hAK9XYzuU
— Shanghai Dragons (@shadragons) August 13, 2025Gallant takes over after Mikhail Kravets was let go after one season on the job.
This will be the first time Gallant has coached a full-time professional team since 2023, when he and the New York Rangers parted ways after a disappointing first-round exit. The Summerside, P.E.I. native was behind the bench for Team Canada at the 2024 Spengler Cup, with his team falling to the Straubing Tigers in the semifinals.
Gallant had coached in the NHL for parts of eight seasons. He got his first shot at being the boss with the Florida Panthers in 2014, guiding the team to an Atlantic Division title in 2015-16, ultimately losing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was let go the following year after a rather mediocre start.
He wasn’t out of a job for long, as Gallant was named the first head coach in the history of the Vegas Golden Knights, winning the Jack Adams Award as the league’s best coach as the team made a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final in its first year. Less than two years later, Gallant was let go after a rough start to the 2019-20 season. Gallant went on to coach the Rangers for two seasons before taking the entire 2023-24 season off.
Along with his NHL experience, Gallant has some hardware at other levels. He coached Canada to the gold medal at the 2021 IIHF Men’s World Championship, and was an assistant for teams at the Men’s Worlds that won gold in 2007 and silver in 2017. He also coached the Saint John Sea Dogs to two Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Championships in 2011 and 2012, guiding the team to its first Memorial Cup in the prior.
Gallant takes over the Dragons, formerly known as Kunlun Red Star, after the team missed the Gagarin Cup Playoffs for the eighth year in a row. The franchise, which has played in St. Petersburg since the 2020-21 season, hasn’t been to the postseason since its inaugural season in 2016-17.