Turk: One of the NHL’s great coaches: From Summerside to Madison Square Garden

by Fred MacDonald, Glenna Jenkins (editor)

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!

Genres: Sports

186 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 15, 2024

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gerard “Turk” Gallant could be what one calls a hockey “lifer.” Between playing the game and coaching, he has been involved in the game for over 5 decades. His life in hockey is captured in this book by Fred MacDonald.

Note that the last sentence stated the book is about his life in hockey. That makes up the bulk of this book. Whether the chapters are about his youth and the hockey he was playing then, his time in junior hockey and the NHL (mainly with the Detroit Red Wings) or his coaching career, the book concentrates on his hockey life and little else. While there is some material on his charitable work and golf tourney, there is very little material on his personal life. I felt this was a shame, for not only would I have liked to learn more about Gallant the person, but one of the best chapters in the book is about how he met and courted his future wife, Pam. The couple is still married to this day.

However, if a reader wants to learn more about Gallant as a player and coach (especially the latter), then this book contains a lot of good information. There isn’t great detail about either his playing time or coaching time but instead a summarization of how his seasons went, big highlights or what became of him after a release or trade during his playing days or his termination while a coach. The coaching sections, as one might expect given the title, are more plentiful in the book. This starts when he was a coach for junior hockey in his home province of Prince Edward Island to his time with the New York Rangers. Again, nothing spectacular or detailed about these coaching jobs, but a decent recap of his time with each team. This is especially true for his time with not only the Rangers, but also the Florida Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights. His first season with the latter, which was also the franchise’s first season, was special in that not only did he win the Jack Adams trophy as the coach of the year (and he was a finalist for both the Panthers and Rangers) but he led the Golden Knights to the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals, the 4th franchise to reach that far in their first season.

At 186 pages, this is a quick read and because it recapped Gallant’s interesting career in a summarization format, it isn’t one for a reader who knows Gallant’s accomplishments well. But if a reader wants to see what makes Gallant one of the more accomplished coaches in the game today, then this book is one to read.

I wish to thank Acorn Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

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[Donald Mulligan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turk the novel provided a very detailed chronological biography of Turk’s playing and coaching career. I enjoyed the early years information because I could make some connections with his teammates and opposing players. This was an easy read as I went through the novel very quickly. But I must say I was disappointed because Fred the Fiddler’s Guardian column has always been a must read. He is funny, knowledgeable, and does not pull any punches. Turk has enjoyed a storied career, so I suspect his fiery temper and former teammates like Probert and Kocur would have led to many entertaining stories. I was hoping for more of a combination of Fiddler’s direct call a spade a spade style with some of Turks behind the curtain stories of an NHLer. This is a fine PG13 novel.

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a very interesting read for me. I knew nothing of the man though I do follow Hockey and heard the name. Reading about his life, playing the game, and then coaching gave me a good look into the life of a player and a coach, the work it takes to get the the pro ranks, and also being fired even after you have a winning season. An excellent book.

[Howie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific read through the playing/coaching career of Gallant. Hard luck and rotten situations make you feel for one of the good guys of the NHL.