Golden Knights fire head coach Gerard Gallant, immediately replace him with Peter DeBoer

The Vegas Golden Knights have made major changes following their loss on Tuesday night.

Just hours after their 4-2 road loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the team announced they have relieved head coach Gerard Gallant and assistant coach Mike Kelly of their duties. They immediately followed that with hiring Peter DeBoer to take Gallant’s place.

Gallant, 56, was hired as the franchise’s first-ever head coach in April 2017, and immediately led them to a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural campaign in the NHL.

However, things had soured since they blew a major three goal lead with 10 minutes remaining in Game 7 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last April.

Having the likes of Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny signed to major multiyear deals, they have high expectations, and came into 2019/2020 expected to compete for the cup. So far they have gotten out to a pedestrian 24-19-6 start, and are losers of four straight games heading into Wednesday.

Gallant leaves the franchise with a 118-75-20 record over two plus seasons, and won 16 combined playoff games during that span.

DeBoer, on the other hand, was just 35 days removed from being let go as head coach of the San Jose Sharks. He has quite the NHL resume backing him up.

The 51-year old has won 415 games, and been a head coach for three different teams (Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils, Sharks) over 12 seasons.