![]() ![]() He hired Dave King as his first coach, but he brought his old pal and student, Gallant, in to be an assistant.Īt the time, Gallant didn’t have a lot of coaching experience. And that’s what you like about him.”Īfter getting fired as the Panthers’ coach in 1998, MacLean was hired to steer the ship of the expansion Blue Jackets as general manager. “He hasn’t changed since he was 10 years of age. And he was really, really well-respected in the dressing room. His skating was average, but he had tremendous hockey sense and he had tremendous character. That was the one thing that always jumped out. He was a really solid, solid player … you know, smart, great hockey sense. “He was an NHL All-Star, scored 30 goals (four) times if you look at his run. “He was a hard-nosed winger that played the bulk of his career with Steve Yzerman,” MacLean said. Gallant worked MacLean’s hockey school for a decade, and in Detroit, MacLean coached Gallant, the man lovingly known as “Turk,” for a few years as Bryan Murray’s assistant. He played every sport and he was a terrific athlete. He was a great hockey player, he was a great ball player, he was a great football player. He was a terrific athlete, I mean a terrific athlete. MacLean said Gallant was a “terrific kid. (Credit: Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images) The fan sitting behind them may not be impressed, but Doug MacLean and Gerard Gallant’s relationship traces back long before the days they shared together on the bench in Columbus. So, I figured if I can’t be a hockey player, how about a postman? “Everybody knew I wanted to be a hockey player. “I hated school,” Gallant, laughing hard, said during a fun chat with The Athletic. He went on to star for Sherbrooke in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings, spent years as Steve Yzerman’s winger and went on to carve out a 211-goal, 1,674-penalty minute, 615-game NHL playing career and seven-year head-coaching career with Columbus, Florida and now Vegas. “I said, ‘I think you should work on your hockey a little more.’” ![]() “I remember when I did a little exercise in my class, asking everybody what they wanted to be when they finish school and he put down he wanted to be a postman. “Umm, I would say he was more interested in hockey,” MacLean, the former Florida Panthers coach and Columbus Blue Jackets president, general manager and coach, said with perfect comedic timing during a phone interview with The Athletic. Gallant was 16 years old, the same year Gallant racked up 60 goals and 115 points playing Maritime Junior A hockey for the Summerside Crystals. Hockey is big business, and this book is an invaluable resource for any leader seeking an edge for building resilient organizations.Įntertaining and informative, with never-before-told details from some of the biggest moments in NHL history, Draft Day is for every hockey fan who wonders how their team develops that hard-to-define winning chemistry-or fails to, year after year.It was 1979. What is that balance in today’s game between metrics and instinct, between analytics and traditional scouting? MacLean draws from his own career as well as anecdotes from across the league to illustrate the hard-won lessons and principles that lead to building successful teams. Just as Moneyball illustrated the value of analytics in building teams in baseball and beyond, Draft Day shows the careful considerations that go into assessing talent for success. Former president, general manager, and coach Doug MacLean takes readers behind the scenes, from the 2022 draft in Montreal to revealing draft stories from the past, to show how players are discovered and evaluated to create successful teams. ![]() Only time will tell if a draft is successful, but a failed draft can severely set teams back for seasons, much to the dread of ownership, management, and most importantly, the fans.įor even the most die-hard hockey fan, the preparation for draft day is a black box. The NHL draft is a critical time for teams, when the foundation for future championships is laid-or when championship dreams die. Doug MacLean, former NHL coach, general manager, team president, and one of the game’s biggest personalities, reveals how teams build for greatness-or fail to-on hockey’s most anticipated day. ![]()
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