Panthers' firing of coach Gerard Gallant a curious move
Over the past few seasons, the Florida Panthers have shifted front-office focus to analytics, locked in a group of skilled, core players and this offseason supplemented them with notable free agents.
But coach Gerard Gallant won’t be there to see how it translates on the rink. The Panthers fired him after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, although it wasn't made official until Monday morning. Gallant had coached the Panthers since the 2014-15 season and was given a two-year extension in January.
General manager Tom Rowe will take over behind the bench, the team confirmed in a statement. Assistant coach Mike Kelly was also fired.
"Today is a hard day. Gerard and Mike are good men and talented hockey coaches," Dale Tallon, the Panthers' president of hockey operations, said in a news release. "We thank them for their contributions in the community, for their work developing our young players and in helping to turn around the culture."
Florida Panthers fire coach Gerard Gallant
The 11-10-1 Panthers have struggled to gather momentum this season as they’ve dealt with injuries to Jonathan Huberdeau, Nick Bjugstad and Alex Petrovic. They went 47-26-9 last season to win the Atlantic Division and advance to the playoffs for the first time since 2011-12. Gallant led the Panthers to a 96-65-25 record, improving from 91 points in 2014-15 to 103 last season.
The Panthers rank eighth in (score, zone and venue adjusted) possession at 52%, according to corsica.hockey, but they are 28th in scoring chances per 60 minutes.
Vincent Viola and Doug Cifu became owners in 2013, and recently that has led to a revamped, aggressive franchise that is more financially stable.
In May, it meant a front office shuffle. Tallon, the GM for the past six seasons, was promoted to president of hockey operations. Rowe, who started the 2015-16 season as the coach of the Panthers’ AHL affiliate and was named associate GM in January, moved into Tallon's role. Eric Joyce and Steve Werier, who was the vice president of legal and business affairs, became assistant GMs.
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The Panthers jumped the free agent market this offseason by trading for defenseman Keith Yandle’s rights, and then signing him to a seven-year, $44.45 million contract. Yandle has been an advanced-stats favorite as someone who generates positive possession numbers. Florida’s analytics focus continued by signing Jason Demers to a five-year contract, fortifying a defense that also includes 20-year-old Aaron Ekblad. They also signed backup goalie James Reimer to a five-year, $17 million deal.
Within the past year, the Panthers have extended core players Ekblad, Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck, Reilly Smith and Huberdeau to long-term contracts. All of those players are under contract until at least 2020-21 and none is older than 25. They also got 44-year-old Jaromir Jagr to re-sign for a second time.
Gallant is the first coach fired this season. It would be surprising to see him out of work for long.
