Summerside's Gerard Gallant was named NHL coach of the year on Wednesday night.
Gallant, who led the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to a record-setting season and a berth in the Stanley Cup final, wins the Jack Adams Award for the first time after finishing as a runner-up to Washington's Barry Trotz in 2016 when Gallant was with the Florida Panthers.
In his acceptance speech, Gallant thanked the players, 11 of whom set career highs in points after being cast off by their previous teams and made available to the Golden Knights in last summer’s expansion draft.
No one imagined the Golden Knights would have the season they had and the focus from training camp was on giving a maximum effort.
“It wasn’t about winning hockey games, it was about competing and playing hard,” Gallant said in his acceptance speech. “Sure enough they got off to an 8-1 start and they got a little cocky and they felt really good about themselves and had an outstanding year.”
The 54-year-old Gallant has been an NHL head coach for seven seasons. He had a stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets before and spent two years as an assistant with the New York Islanders before taking a job closer to home.
He had a successful three-year run with the Saint John Sea Dogs that included two Quebec Major Junior Hockey League championships in 2010-11 and 2011-12 and the first Memorial Cup title by an Atlantic Canadian team in 2011.
He returned to the NHL as an assistant with the Montreal Canadiens in 2012 before taking the head coaching job with Florida in 2014.
“It's something I've never dreamed about. I never thought I'd be NHL Coach of the Year," Gallant told NHL.com. "It's a great honour.”
In his previous six seasons as an NHL head coach, Gallant’s teams had only qualified for the playoffs once, in 2015-16 when he was nominated for coach of the year. The Panthers were eliminated in the first round that year.
After shattering the record for most wins by an expansion team during the regular season with 51, the Golden Knights shocked the hockey world by eliminating the Los Angeles Kings, the San Jose Sharks, and the Winnipeg Jets to advance to the final against the Washington Capitals.
“It was a dream season right up until Game 5,” Gallant said of the Stanley Cup final. “It was an unbelievable year. Obviously, nobody expected us to come out of the gate the way we did, or expected us to get to the playoffs, but we had a great team. We had a great season. We fell a little bit short, but I'll go home this summer really proud of our group and get ready to go again next year.”
