Veteran coach makes his interest in the Oilers crystal clear

Gerard Gallant is healthy, ready to coach, and apparently invisible to the league's front offices.

According to reporter Nick Alberga, Gallant said publicly that no team has reached out to him about any of the current NHL coaching openings, despite being fully healthy and eager to get back behind an NHL bench.

Three hundred and sixty-nine wins over an NHL head coaching career. Multiple playoff runs. And right now, his phone is quiet.

That is a strange situation. And it gets stranger when you look at which teams need a coach this summer.

The Oilers just got knocked out by Anaheim in six games, winning just twice in that series before a 2-5 loss closed it out in late April.

Connor McDavid posted 138 points during the regular season. In those six playoff games, he had 1 goal and went -8.

That's not entirely on the coaching, but it's not separate from it either.

Why Gallant makes sense for the Oilers and the Maple Leafs

Leon Draisaitl was solid with 10 points in the six games against Anaheim. The rest of the lineup came up short.

Kasperi Kapanen, at just $1.3 million, put up 4 goals and a +7 rating in those playoffs. He was arguably Edmonton's best forward across the series. That says something about how the roster was deployed.

Meanwhile in Toronto, the Maple Leafs finished 32-36-14. Seventy-eighth in points, 28th overall, a -46 goal differential.

The Leafs finished the season on a seven-game losing streak. Went 2-7-1 over their last ten. Auston Matthews, at $13.25 million on the cap, managed 60 games and 53 points.

Two franchises. Two vacancies. A combined cap commitment of over $25 million between McDavid and Matthews. And one of the most experienced coaches available is sitting by a silent phone.

Gallant has won in Vegas and in New York. His teams compete, defend, and don't disappear in April. You can argue about his ceiling all you want, but the floors he's produced have been consistently better than what these two markets just delivered.

The Oilers went out in the first round. The Leafs didn't even make it to the dance.

At some point, the question stops being whether Gallant is good enough. It becomes whether any of these front offices are paying attention.

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