A relieved Gerard Gallant is back in his native Prince Edward Island after a stressful exit from Russia.
First and foremost, Gallant stressed on Wednesday how good his KHL team, the Shanghai Dragons, were to him as he dealt with an illness and made the decision after consultation with team doctors there to step down as coach and return home.
But after eight days in a hospital in Russia, and not feeling right for almost a month, Gallant is in a better place now.
“Since I’ve been home the last 48 hours here, I feel great — like, I feel real good,” the former Jack Adams Award winner told The Athletic over the phone Wednesday.
Gallant, 62, saw his P.E.I. doctor on Tuesday, and they will run more tests on him in the coming week or two.
“Hopefully I’m moving in the right direction, because I feel good,” he said. “I’m taking the medication I was prescribed in Russia. My blood pressure got a little high, and I’d never got that before.”
Gallant started feeling ill about a month ago. The stress of coaching and a season not going as hoped, with his KHL team out of playoff position, could have contributed.
“I’ve never been sick before,” Gallant said. “But since I’ve been home, I feel great. My appetite is back, and I feel really good.”
Gallant has a 369-262-4-70 record in 705 NHL games behind the bench, winning the Jack Adams with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017-18. He was also a finalist for the award in 2021-22 with the New York Rangers and runner-up in 2015-16 with the Florida Panthers.
He last coached in the NHL with the Rangers in 2022-23, when they went 47-22-13 but lost in the first round of the playoffs. He hasn’t given up hope of getting one more NHL opportunity. But in the moment, he’s just relieved to be home.
Gerard Gallant last coached in the NHL with the Rangers in 2022-23. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Grubauer’s turnaround
One of the great stories of this season has been veteran goalie Philipp Grubauer’s reemergence.
Last Jan. 29, the Seattle Kraken placed Grubauer on waivers. Sporting an ugly .866 save percentage in 21 games with a $5.9 million cap hit through 2026-27, he went unclaimed and was demoted to the AHL.
He started this season as the backup to Joey D’Accord, who himself was a wonderful story last season. Grubauer started just once in October and three times in November. But he’s gotten busier, starting nine times since Dec. 8 — and for good reason.
Through Tuesday, he had 10 goals saved above expected (via MoneyPuck) in 16 games in 2025-26 and was tied for the NHL lead with a .924 save percentage.
“It’s all on the player,” Kraken general manager Jason Botterill told The Athletic. “Philipp really stepped up. He trained very hard this summer. He came back to Seattle prepared, and it showed. He utilized our new goalie coach as a resource. Even when he didn’t get many starts at the beginning of the season, he stayed focused and was an excellent teammate.”
By any measure, it’s quite a turnaround.
“Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he took control and forced the situation into one where he could prove he can play instead of simply trying to survive,” Grubauer’s agent, Allain Roy, said. “That’s always a fine line for all athletes because opportunity is often limited by forces outside of themselves.”
The timing couldn’t be more perfect for Grubauer, who is Milan-bound as part of Germany’s Olympic roster.
Philipp Grubauer has been on a roll in 2025-26 — a year after being placed on waivers. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Habs cash in on Texier gamble
Alexandre Texier’s two-year extension, announced Wednesday, is quite the exclamation point on a flyer by the Montreal Canadiens less than two months ago.
After having his contract terminated by the Blues and becoming a free agent, Texier signed a one-year, $1 million deal with the Habs on Nov. 23 — out of necessity for the team because of a rash of injuries. The idea for Montreal was that it might flip him at the March 6 deadline if it got healthy and no longer needed his services.
Instead, Texier has seven goals and 16 points in 25 games with the Canadiens — recently playing on the top line — forcing them to re-examine his worth.
At $2.5 million per year on the new deal, it’s hardly a risk financially. If his game goes south at some point during that deal, Montreal can afford to bury the contract in the AHL if need be.
I believe there was debate within the front office over whether to go two years or three on the extension. In the end, the Habs went two, mitigating risk with a shorter term.
I also think the Canadiens know that Texier feels comfortable in whatever role he ends up in, even if life is great right now on the top line.
Could Hamilton trade happen before Olympics?
Dougie Hamilton surprisingly re-entered the New Jersey Devils lineup after one game as a scratch, but that doesn’t change where his situation is likely headed. All parties involved are still focused on finding a trade resolution.
Hamilton has two more years on his deal at a $9 million cap hit. There’s hope of getting a trade done before the Feb. 4 Olympics trade freeze, but there’s certainly no guarantee of that, given the contract involved.
The Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs are among the potential fits. Hamilton was a productive player with the Hurricanes, and there is some level of interest there. And Leafs GM Brad Treliving had Hamilton in Calgary. Granted, he traded him away, but the Leafs have a right-shot, top-four need with the Chris Tanev injury.
It’s believed the Maple Leafs wouldn’t entertain a deal, though, unless the Devils retained significantly. Obviously, there are other teams interested as well. The calls started to come in after the Saturday healthy scratch and statements from agent J.P. Barry and GM Tom Fitzgerald to The Athletic made headlines.
But before any Hamilton trade happens, the Devils are focused on creating cap flexibility. Moving Ondrej Palat and his $6 million cap hit (through next season) is top of the list, but the veteran winger has a modified no-trade (10-team “yes” list), so it’s also complicated.
The bottom line is, there are a lot of moving parts in New Jersey right now.
Bergevin’s decision to join Kekäläinen
It was intriguing to see former Habs GM Marc Bergevin leave a decent gig in Los Angeles, where he had a good relationship with Kings GM Ken Holland, to join Jarmo Kekäläinen in the Buffalo Sabres front office as associate GM last month. It felt like a parallel move, but he’s landed with a more meaningful role in Buffalo.
Bergevin and Kekäläinen have been close for years — spotted routinely together at GM meetings. So it wasn’t surprising. But it still meant leaving one good gig for another.
“I was in L.A. for four years as an adviser to (former Kings GM Rob Blake) and then Kenny, and there was no issue whatsoever there. Kenny understood,” Bergevin told The Athletic. “But when Jarmo reached out, we’ve always had a good relationship over the years, so when he asked me to join, I just felt Buffalo was an appealing place. They have some really good pieces. For whatever reason, they haven’t been able to take the next step. So that’s for me appealing, knowing they have a good base.”
Kekalainen plans to lean heavily on Bergevin. It’s a real senior 1-2 punch at the top for Buffalo now. And two guys who complete each other.
“Jarmo and I have different skill sets. We see things differently,” Bergevin said. “That’s one of the reasons he brought me here.”
That doesn’t mean Bergevin has closed the door on wanting to be a GM again. His deal with the Sabres has an opt-out if that opportunity materializes.
Bergevin was runner-up to Mathieu Darche for the New York Islanders GM job in May and also interviewed for the GM jobs in Toronto (went to Treliving) and Pittsburgh (went to Kyle Dubas) in the summer of 2023.
But for now, it’s all hands on deck with the Sabres. Bergevin moved to Dallas last summer and will remain there. It gives the Sabres a different set of eyes in another part of the league. But he will be busy, traveling around the league.
Bergevin was Montreal’s GM for nearly 10 years, and Kekalainen was Columbus’ for more than 11. After hiring three rookie GMs in a row during his time as Sabres owner, Terry Pegula has obviously seen the value in front-office experience this time around.
Bowness signs on for rest of season
Partly because it came together so quickly, the Blue Jackets signed new coach Rick Bowness just for the rest of the season at this point, GM Don Waddell confirmed.
Both sides will revisit things after the season to see how the fit was. There was mutual agreement to handle it that way. Bowness, who turns 71 on Jan. 25, will want to see where he’s at with the stress of NHL coaching now back in his life after he retired two years ago. He said Tuesday at his introductory news conference that the main reason he stepped down two years ago in Winnipeg was health reasons, not just his own but also his wife Judy’s. Both are doing better now, and he couldn’t resist the opportunity when the Jackets reached out Monday.
The Jackets still will be paying fired coach Dean Evason through next season. He had an option in his deal for 2027-28, but that part is voided now.
More coaching carousel
The Jackets’ coaching change was the first of the NHL season. After a couple of years of massive turnover, there was at least a half-season of stability for once.
Nashville held off on a coaching change earlier this season when people wondered about Andrew Brunette’s future, but GM Barry Trotz stood by him through the worst of it, and the Preds’ season has stabilized.
And it got hot in Toronto just before Christmas in terms of market noise, but the Maple Leafs also held firm, with Treliving backing coach Craig Berube at a Dec. 23 news conference. The Leafs, coincidence or not, have since taken off, going 8-1-1 to get back in the playoff race.
The hot spots now would be in New Jersey and Los Angeles. Fitzgerald told local media Wednesday that he’s “in lockstep” with Devils coach Sheldon Keefe. As for Kings head coach Jim Hiller, my understanding is that GM Ken Holland isn’t planning to make a change as of now. The Kings were a point out of the playoffs as of Wednesday morning. As long as they stay in the race, I think Hiller makes it through the season before things get re-evaluated. Having said that, I can’t predict how management would react if the Kings went into a long losing streak.
Firing the coach isn’t always the answer. The allure for GMs is that the coaching-change bump has been real often in the past. In the case of Columbus, Waddell thought hard about it for a few weeks before pulling the trigger. No doubt that came after conversations with his leadership core of players, too.
And the timing of it was key: The Jackets made the change before a critical 12-game stretch ahead of the Olympic break (eight games at home). Waddell feels his team, which missed the playoffs by two points last season, could still get back in the race. So he’s hoping to get the Bowness Bounce. So far, so good with an opening win over Calgary.