Golden Knights coach not sweating roster picks

As NHL Expansion Draft approaches, Gallant reiterates role: ‘Coaches coach’

In just one day, the Vegas Golden Knights will receive protection lists from the other 30 NHL teams.

Vegas scouts and personnel will then have 72 hours to choose one player from each team while simultaneously signing free agents and working out trades with other general managers.

It’s expected to be the busiest transaction period in league history, but Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant will be able to sit back and relax.

“I’m going to know what’s going on but I have no decision on that stuff,” said Gallant, who will be in the room when decisions are made but will have little input. “They will ask me about players I’ve had before and I’ll give my opinion.”

And that’s just the way he likes it. “That’s the way it should be when it’s done properly,” Gallant said. “Coaches coach and management picks the players and the scouts draft the players.”

With decades of experience, Gallant has coached many of the players the team will be evaluating and possibly choosing to draft.

“They’ve already asked me about guys that I’ve coached and know really well,” Gallant said. “It’s going to be awesome. Our scouts and management staff have done an outstanding job watching these players all year long.”

Gallant doesn’t know which players he’ll get, but he knows the qualities he wants in his players.

“I want character guys with good leadership,” Gallant said. “I want guys that come to the rink every day and compete to get better. They don’t have to be older guys, but I want guys with leadership whether they’re 27 or 28; I don’t care.”

He knows the team will inherently be young, full of prospects.

“I look back on my days with Florida where we had good success and the guys like Derek Mackenzie, Shawn Thornton and Roberto Luongo,” Gallant said. “They are really important guys because that took care of the younger players.”

Luongo helped anchor the Panthers with solid goaltending during Gallant’s tenure. He may get lucky enough to start off with one in Las Vegas after it was reported Penguins’ goalie Marc-andre Fleury waived his no-movement clause on Monday.