Brace Hemmelgarn-Imagn Images
It’s been a couple of years since Gerard Gallant saw his time as the head coach of the New York Rangers. He’s found a new home in the KHL, and the team that landed his talents went all out to drum up excitement for his arrival.
The Kontinental Hockey League, the Russia-based organization most hockey fans refer to as the KHL, has historically been both a feeder league for the NHL and the place where many players head if they don’t have the skills to keep playing at the highest level of the sport (or, in some cases, have their careers derailed by scandals that some KHL teams have shown they’re willing to ignore).
In 2013, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the KHL team that Evgeni Malkin played for before making the leap to the big time, made a bit of a splash by hiring longtime NHL head coach Mike Keenan.
He was fired in 2015 and joined the franchise that was known as the Kunlun Red Star in 2017 for an ill-fated stint that ended when he was fired before finishing his first season, and now, the rebranded version of that club is hoping another guy who’s opted to follow a similar career path will have a bit more success.
The Shanghai Dragons of the KHL whipped up an absurd video to announce the hiring of Gerard Gallant
Gerard Gallant landed his first NHL coaching gig with the Blue Jackets in 2003 to kick off a career where he also roamed the bench for the Panthers, Golden Knights, and Rangers while putting together a record of 369-262-4 by the time he and New York “mutually parted ways” following a first-round playoff exit in 2023.
Gallant has been lying low since then, but the Shanghai Dragons (the name the Red Stars adopted earlier this month after relocating) tapped him to fill the vacancy that formed after moving on from former head coach Mikhail Kravets in the wake of the most recent campaign.
There’s no telling if Gallant will be able to inject some new life into a franchise that has consistently finished in the basement of the standings and never posted a winning record since kicking off its inaugural season in 2016. However, the Dragons did everything in their power to get fans amped with the hype video they whipped up.
THE MASTER IS HERE pic.twitter.com/0hAK9XYzuU
— Shanghai Dragons (@shadragons) August 13, 2025
While I can’t say I endorse the use of the A.I. that obviously did most of the legwork when it came to putting that video together, I don’t know if a human could have put together something so perfectly cheesy.