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Three Candidates for the Columbus Blue Jackets head coach vacancy

The Blue Jackets relieved Pascal Vincent of his head coaching duties of the club. There are a lot of candidates to take the position, but who are the best candidates?

By Matthew Duffey

Dallas Stars v Columbus Blue Jackets
Dallas Stars v Columbus Blue Jackets / Jason Mowry/GettyImages
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2. Gerard Gallant

Gerard Gallant
New York Rangers v Florida Panthers / Joel Auerbach/GettyImages

Gallant got his first head coaching position with the Blue Jackets during the 2003 season. Since then, he has been the head coach for three other NHL organizations.

Outside of his time in Columbus, he saw great success from behind the bench. The former CBJ head coach made the playoffs in 8 of the 9 seasons with those other organizations.

His best coaching job was the inaugural season of the Vegas Golden Knights, where he took an expansion team to the Stanley Cup Final. One pause to hiring Gallant is that he was let go from all those positions, three of which were during/after winning seasons.

That raises more questions than answers.

But, the numbers don’t lie, Gallant is a good coach. He won 52% of his games, which included terrible seasons with the Blue Jackets. If the organization is putting winning now first, then Gallant may be the ideal candidate.

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