5 NHL teams who should hire Gerard Gallant right now

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 27: Head coach Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights takes questions during a news conference following the team's 5-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks at T-Mobile Arena on October 27, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

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Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images /

1. Montreal Canadiens

Frankly, I don’t think that hiring Gerard Gallant would save the Montreal Canadiens season. Watching them, I can tell their problems aren’t system-related. The Canadiens dominate possession and can consistently set up scoring chances. Their issue is they can’t finish them and they don’t have enough depth. Neither of those issues is the fault of head coach Claude Julien.

This doesn’t have to do with what I would do. Rather, this is about what I think Habs general manager Marc Bergevin will do.

Knowing how teams tend to operate, Bergevin could blame Julien for the team’s flaws and go after Gallant. It’s something he would do. Bergevin hasn’t shied away from firing his coaches during the season. Remember Michel Therrien?

Something else to consider is that Bergevin probably needs to do something. He doesn’t want to trade Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, or Carey Price. Changing the roster likely isn’t an option because nothing short of adding quite a bit of skill would change much. However, changing the man behind the bench is something Bergevin could sell to ownership.

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Julien is a good coach, but Gallant is arguably better. The latter has certainly done more with less than the former has. True, Gallant hasn’t won a Stanley Cup like Julien. However, he’s had more recent success than him. Also, Julien’s Stanley Cup was won nine years ago and it took a historic performance from Tim Thomas for him to win it.

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