Panthers fire Gallant: 3 times NHL GM replaced his head coach
The Florida Panthers fired Gerard Gallant. Their general manager Tom Rowe will replace him. Let’s look at three other times a general manager took over coaching duties.
In the NHL, it’s tradition that general managers stay in the front office and head coaches stay behind the bench. Their worlds rarely collide and many GMs find it uncomfortable at best to try to tell their coaches what to do. However, there are some exceptions to this rule.
One of those exceptions is Tom Rowe of the Florida Panthers. After the front office reportedly soured on Gerard Gallant, Rowe, the general manager, fired him. Guess who will be replacing him? You guessed it, Rowe.
It may sound weird and outlandish for a general manager to also serve as the team’s head coach, but this is not a new thing. This has occurred numerous times in history. Let’s look at some of the more recent examples.
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3. Bryan Murray – Ottawa Senators
The most famous example of this is probably Bryan Murray. It’s not surprising that he could pull it off because he has the unique distinction of being named both the coach of the year and executive of the year. After serving as the Anaheim Ducks general manager, Murray shocked a lot of people by quitting to become the Ottawa Senators’ head coach. This made for a very exciting 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, which saw the Ducks best the Senators.
After Ottawa got rid of their general manager, Murray got a promotion from head coach. However, following a disappointing stretch of the 2007-08 season, he got back behind the bench. The result wasn’t terrible, but it’s worth noting Murray might be more qualified as a coach than a general manager. With him behind the helm, Ottawa went 7-9-2, making the NHL playoffs before losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins. So if you’re going to do both jobs, you should probably be good at both just like Murray.
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2. Paul Holmgren
Before almost getting Shea Weber to sign an offer sheet, Paul Holmgren served as both the head coach and the general manager for the now defunct Hartford Whalers. He is well known for his time with the Flyers as a player. Naturally, he got his coaching start there too. However, he was fired after a very disappointing fourth year in Philly.
From there, he went to the Hartford Whalers, serving as their NHL head coach starting in 1992. After his first season, then general manager Brian Burke suddenly left. Holmgren got a nice promotion, serving as both the coach and GM. However, he quickly gave in to the stress for pulling off the dual roles. Then assistant general manager Pierre McGuire took over for him.
However, he didn’t have success as the coach. So guess who replaced him? Yup, it was Holmgren. Even after the team changed owners and general managers, he stayed as the coach until he was fired in 1996.
During his time with the Whalers, Holmgren didn’t replicate his early success with the Flyers. He won just 54 of his 161 games. With a 54-93-14 record, he had a paltry .396 point percentage with Hartford. Holmgren wasn’t meant to be a coach, but he’s had a solid career as a front office executive.
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1. Lou Lamoriello
Lou Lamoriello is no stranger to strange and ridiculous events. He likes things done a very specific way. Perhaps this is why he is generally thought of as one of the best general managers in the history of the NHL. His resume speaks for itself. Sure, he got some help from an arbiter, but his three Stanley Cup wins are very hard to overlook.
So it’s only fitting he served as both the head coach and general manager of the Devils three times. The first time was in December 2005 when he was forced to because then coach Larry Robinson abruptly quit for a variety of reasons. Lamoriello hated being the coach, so he hired Claude Julien to replace him. Lou coached 50 games, winning 32 of them.
Julien didn’t last for long, as he got fired in April 2007 with three games left. Lamoriello led the Devils to the Eastern Conference Semifinals before eventually losing to the Ottawa Senators. Losing Julien wound up hurting the Devils, as he has been quite successful with the Boston Bruins.
You’d think after two times coaching, Lamoriello would get tired of coaching. Nope. After Peter DeBoer got fired in December of 2014, he got behind the bench again. And this time, it was a doozy. Lamoriello served as a co-head coach, along with Scott Stevens and Adam Oates.
This one didn’t work out well for the Devils either. DeBoer went on to coach the San Jose Sharks to their first ever Stanley Cup appearance in 2016.
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