Fansided

Every current NHL franchise’s most beloved head coach

By Griffin Youngs

(Original Caption) Detroit Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman with the Stanley Cup on day of Red Wings celebratory parade in Detroit. (Photo by © Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
(Original Caption) Detroit Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman with the Stanley Cup on day of Red Wings celebratory parade in Detroit. (Photo by © Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) /
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Coaches are the backbones of every NHL team, but some coaches just strike a chord with their fanbase. Here is every NHL franchise’s most beloved head coach.

No team is complete without a head coach behind the bench. Your team can have all talent in the world on it but if there are no brains running the show behind the brawn, you might as well just fold it up.

Sometimes being the head coach is a thankless job. When things start to go wrong, the fans will turn their torches and pitchforks on you, and ownership will feed you to wolves in order to appease the masses. But sometimes, coaches just strike the right chord with the fans with either their success, their personality, or just the legacy they left behind. So let’s take a look at every franchise’s most beloved head coaches in their history.

Let’s start with an easy one down in the NHL’s newest home, Las Vegas, home of the expansion Golden Knights.

LAS VEGAS, NV – APRIL 11: Head coach Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights speaks during a postgame news conference after the team defeated the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 in Game One of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena on April 11, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV – APRIL 11: Head coach Gerard Gallant of the Vegas Golden Knights speaks during a postgame news conference after the team defeated the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 in Game One of the Western Conference First Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena on April 11, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Vegas Golden Knights: Gerard Gallant

Gerard Gallant is the only coach in Vegas Golden Knights history. That was pretty easy.

He’s also the hands-down favorite for the Jack Adams Award this season and took an expansion team to not just making the playoffs, but winning the Pacific Division and sweeping their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings for their first ever playoff series win. No matter how the rest of the playoff run goes for Vegas, Gallant will be there for the foreseeable future.

Pretty good, I think. All he had to do to get on this list was show up, but he’s gone above and beyond in every possible fashion. Maybe a Stanley Cup in his first season will cement his legacy as the greatest Golden Knights coach for a long time to come.

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