Turk

The New York Rangers headed into the 2021-22 regular NHL season with a head coach determined to make the Blueshirts a Stanley Cup contender. That coach was Gerard "Turk" Gallant.

The Prince Edward Island-born Turk Gallant has had an extraordinary hockey career. He led Team Canada to a gold medal at the IIHF World Championship in Riga, Latvia, in 2021. Before that, in 2017-18, he led the Vegas Golden Knights, in their inaugural season, to the Stanley Cup finals. That year, he also won the Jack Adams Award, presented annually by the NHL Broadcasters Association "to the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success." Despite this incredible achievement, Turk was fired from the Golden Knights. Similarly, Turk had been fired by the Florida Panthers in 2016, despite having led that team to a franchise record in number of points and been a finalist for the Jack Adams Award that year, leaving many fans scratching their heads.

NY Rangers GM Chris Drury saw Turk's experience as an asset. With his nine years of head coaching in the NHL, Turk was hired to lead the Rangers' young team to new heights throughout the 2021-22 season. And that he did. Under Turk's leadership, the Rangers went from young underdogs to the Stanley Cup playoffs!