Vegas Fires Gallant; Hires DeBoer

The @Vegas Golden Knights have relieved Gerard Gallant of his coaching duties and named Pete DeBoer as their new head coach.

Gallant is two seasons removed from taking the expansion team to the Stanley Cup Finals and the Golden Knights have the ninth-best record (118-75-20) since coming into the NHL.

They fire Gallant in the midst of a four-game losing streak and one game into a four-game road trip before the All-Star break. Despite going 4-5-0 since Christmas, Vegas leads the league in xGF/60 (2.96) and is fifth in xGA/60 (1.91) over that span, suggesting that they’re playing great but not getting the results. (per naturalstattrick.com)

In steps DeBoer, who was on the other side of the Pacific Division rivalry with San Jose but was let go in mid-December. During his time with the Sharks, DeBoer was 10-13-2 head-to-head with Gallant’s Golden Knights.

It has been a tough season for NHL head coaches. Gallant was the seventh coach to be fired to-date.

• – Toronto fired Mike Babcock; hired Sheldon Keefe
• – Calgary fired Bill Peters; named Geoff Ward as interim head coach.
• – New Jersey fired John Hynes; named Alain Nasreddine as interim head coach.
• – Dallas fired Jim Montgomery; named Rick Bowness as interim head coach.
• – San Jose fired DeBoer; named Bob Boughner interim head coach.
• – Nashville fired Peter Laviolette; hied Hynes.
• – Vegas fired Gallant; hired DeBoer.

As of the firing, the Golden Knights are just outside of the wild card, sitting on 54 points (24-19-6). They are tied for 16th in GF/gm (3.02), 15th in GA/gm (3.04), t-8th in PP% (22.1) and t-19th in PK% (78.8).

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