Saint John Sea Dogs head coach, and former bench boss of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Gerard Gallant will be joining the Montreal Canadiens coaching staff as an assistant for Michel Therrien on Friday. He has informed the Sea Dogs that he won’t be returning.
Here is Gallant’s career coaching experience:
Gallant had a pretty terrible record in Columbus, but the Blue Jackets were a terrible team and he didn’t have much to work with.
Since he was let go from his Columbus job, he’s had a ton of success in the QMJHL, leading the Sea Dogs to the QMJHL finals 3 straight times, winning twice, and taking home the Memorial Cup once.
Gallant lead a powerhouse Sea Dogs team, there can be no mistake about that, they were loaded with talent. However many teams loaded with talent don’t achieve the same level of success. Gallant also ran a dominating possession team in the Sea Dogs, a philosophy he will hopefully bring to the Canadiens as well.
Gallant has coached Habs top prospect Nathan Beaulieu for the last 3 seasons.
Jonathan Willis wrote a profile on Gerard Gallant last week.
Update:
The Canadiens have been busy today, as they also signed Steve Quailer to a 2 year entry level deal. After a promising start to his NCAA career, the Canadiens 3rd round pick in 2008 suffered a major injury that forced him to miss his entire sophomore year at Northeastern, and set back his development. Quailer still struggled with injury this year, but got his offense going again, scoring nearly a point per game.
Here are his career stats:
