Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant has been named a finalist for the NHL’s Jack Adams Award, presented annually to “to the coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.
This is the third time, with the third different team, Gallant has been a finalist for the Adams Award, as he was also a finalist in 2015-16 with the Panthers and won the award in 2017-18 with Vegas. He is the sixth Rangers coach to earn that nod – the last being Alain Vigneault in 2014-15 – and would be the first Blueshirts boss to actually win it if he does so.
Florida’s Andrew Brunette and Calgary’s Darryl Sutter are the other two finalists for the Adams Award, which, as with all other NHL Awards, will be announced later during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Gallant, 58, led the Rangers to a 52-24-6 record in his first season at the helm, and the team has advanced to at least the Eastern Conference semifinals. That is a great improvement from 2020-21, where the team went 27-23-6 in a truncated, division-only season under David Quinn.
The Rangers’ 110 points were third most in franchise history, and their 52 wins tied for second-most in franchise history, and made Gallant just the second head coach – behind Stanley Cup-winning Rangers coach Mike Keenan – to win 50 or more games in his first season with multiple franchises (Gallant’s Vegas team won 51 in 2017-18, when he won the Adams Award).
Per Rangers PR, 18 Rangers skaters either recorded or tied a career-high in either goals, assists, or points, with eight doing so in all three categories. In addition, the 2021-22 Rangers were the 10th team in NHL history to finish with at least 50 wins and at least 100 points, have a goaltender with at least 36 wins, and have both a 50-goal scorer and a 90-point scorer.
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