Could Panthers’ loss of Gerard Gallant be Golden Knights’ gain?

Former Florida Panthers coach Gerard Gallant (AP Photo/Hans Pennink)

From the moment the news broke Sunday night that Gerard Gallant had been fired as coach of the Florida Panthers, the tweets were flying that Gallant had all but been anointed the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights.

George McPhee, the Knights’ general manager, probably had a good laugh over this since it will be he, owner Bill Foley and assistant GM Kelly McCrimmon who decide which person will get the job.

Which is not to say it won’t ultimately be Gallant, who did a good job in a short time as Panthers coach before finding himself in a purge of company policy, and his philosophy didn’t match that of the team’s new management.

McPhee did not return a request for an interview. But in a statement issued Tuesday by the team, he said: “Our plan is to hire a coaching staff in the spring. We recognized the potential for coaching changes during the season, but believe we should use our time wisely in this process.”

Gallant’s dismissal is the latest in a number of strange moves by the Panthers, an organization which had finally turned its losing culture around and re-energized its fan base a year ago. When you put up 103 points, win your division and go to the playoffs, something had to be right.

Gallant found himself playing the same game with a new deck of cards and his partners at the table weren’t exactly in his corner. The defense corps had been shaken up. Injuries had hurt the team. And still the Panthers had a winning record at the time Gallant was let go.

So back to the original premise that Gallant might as well start house hunting in Summerlin: It’s hard to imagine McPhee and Gallant not speaking, if they haven’t already. It’s also hard to believe there would be a knee-jerk reaction at Village Center Circle and those lists of possible head coaches McPhee and McCrimmon have been compiling would go into the shredder.

Gallant has around $2 million coming his way over the next two years. Who’s to say he wants to get right back behind the bench? Maybe he does. Maybe he’d like a break.

In all likelihood, McPhee and Gallant will talk or have already talked. Assuming they are on the same page and there’s significant interest on McPhee’s part (remember, he already has ex-Panthers Scott Luce and Erin Ginnell on his staff), they will revisit the situation in a couple of months.

PLAYERS TURN DOWN OFFER

The NHL’s possible participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics took a bit of a hit Friday when the league’s Players Association rejected an offer of a three-year extension of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement in exchange for the players to be allowed to play in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The owners are scheduled to meet this week in Florida and while it’s unlikely the issue will be settled there, it probably means it will go down to the wire in January when the NHL has to notify the International Ice Hockey Federation whether its players will participate.

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said there was no appetite on the players’ part to extend the CBA to 2025 but he was hopeful a deal can get done to allow the players to play.

“Hopefully we’ll still be able to conclude an agreement to go to the Olympics,” Fehr told the Canadian Press. “We still think it’s important and we’ll go from there.”

RANGERS TOP FORBES RANKINGS

Forbes Magazine came out with its annual rankings of the value of the NHL’s teams this week and the New York Rangers are at the top of the list.

The Rangers are valued at a league-high $1.25 billion, an increase of 4.2 percent from last year. The Rangers also led the league in revenue with $219 million.

Next are the Montreal Canadiens, whose value is $1.12 billion. Rounding out the top five are the Toronto Maple Leafs at $1.1 billion, the Chicago Blackhawks at $925 million and the Boston Bruins at $800 million.

According to Forbes, the average value of an NHL team was $517 million. The formula the magazine uses is equity plus debt to determine a team’s value and does not include capital expenditure.

The seven Canadian teams all dropped in value, thanks in part to the Canadian dollar, which dipped below par. The Canadian teams pay their players in U.S. dollars which accounts for a big part of the operating deficit. Forbes used a value of 75 cents for the loonie in compiling its figures for the Canadian teams.

At the bottom of the list were the Carolina Hurricanes, who despite a 2 percent increase in value, had a worth of just $99 million. The Golden Knights, who join the NHL in 2017-18, paid $500 million to become the league’s 31st team.

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.