The Rangers have announced that they and Gerard Gallant have “mutually agreed to part ways.”

Gallant was under contract for next season and had a club option after that. (LeBrun)

Chris Drury said “I want to first thank Gerard for his work and commitment to the Rangers during his time as head coach. I have a ton of respect for Gerard as both a coach and person and truly appreciate everything he did for us on and off the ice these last two seasons. After my evaluation of the season and discussions with Gerard, we mutually came to the conclusion that a change would be beneficial for both parties. I wish he and his family all the best in the future. Our search for a new head coach will begin right away.”

Gallant said  “I would like to thank Mr. Dolan, Chris and the Rangers organization for giving me the opportunity to be their head coach these last two seasons. The experience of coaching an Original Six franchise with such rich history and an incredibly passionate fanbase is something I will never forget. After conversations with my family and Chris, it became clear that this was the right decision for both myself and the Rangers at this time.”

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Gary Bettman was on the Bob McCown podcast today and was asked about Joel Quenneville, and Stan Bowman, and said:

• What is the process for Bowman and Quenneville to work in the NHL again, “at the appropriate time there will need to be some discussion about where things have been and where things are and whether or not it’s appropriate to return, but that is not something I’m comfortable getting into right now.”
• Would that be a discussion with you, them and the specific team, “there are no operative teams because they are not eligible to engage with a team right now.”
• So they can’t negotiate, “no.”
• If I was the President of Comcast I couldn’t phone Joel and ask him to come in for an interview, “no.”

5/6/23 | Elliotte Friedman was on NHL Network on Saturday and said, “I don’t think anybody is surprised, I think a lot of people saw this coming. There were some rumors about it during the season, I heard during the year that the Rangers had at least looked around about the possibility of if they made a coaching change, who would be available. I think Gallant was well aware that the ground underneath his feet wasn’t very safe and even when he came out kind of swinging at the media the other day in the sense that he was prepared for the questions and how disappointing they were, I think he still knew this was a possibility and I don’t think anybody is overly surprised that we are at this point today.”

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5/4/23 | Arthur Staple confirms that Drury and Gallant “got heated” after the Rangers loss in Game 4. (The Athletic)

Staple says that Gallant has been on the hot seat since the Rangers were eliminated and “even a bit before the postseason.” (The Athletic)

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5/3/23 | 5:35 PM: EJ Hradek said on NHL Network “when they struggled in November, there was one source that told me that they had been making calls for a couple of other coaches and I hear that they are very, very interested in Joel Quenneville. That is just what I hear from people that I trust. It doesn’t mean anything that he hasn’t done a great job, we’ve seen this before with coaches who do well in big markets with ownership groups that are eager to be successful. Sometimes even if you do well it’s not good enough. He went to the Final with Vegas and what was it? 18 months later he had been fired. I don’t know how it’s going to play out, he’s done a great job in my mind with the Rangers, but there is just too much smoke around this story that it’s just something the media is making up, nobody is making it up. The Rangers are considering what to do and we’ll see what happens.”

11:34 AM: Elliotte Friedman said on 32 Thoughts “all the tea leaves say that they are going to make a change. In a lot of ways it’s the easy thing to do. I’ve said this many times this year, you know who the owner of the Rangers is. He’s a volcano and not a dormant volcano, one that actually tends to erupt from time to time. This year I think there were times that Gallant knew he was in trouble, I absolutely think that there were times this year where the Rangers looked around and said ‘okay, who is going to replace him if we make a change?’ I think they sent out feelers and I think they were looking into who could be out there and who might be interested, but Gallant righted the ship and I really liked the way the Rangers went into the playoffs.”

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