Former Vancouver Canucks Coach's Latest Career Move Turns Heads Ahead of the Season

As the summer slowly winds down, teams around the globe have been finalizing their respective coaching staffs for the 2025-26 season, including the Vancouver Canucks, who appointed Adam Foote as their new bench boss back in May.

There have also been a number of former Vancouver Canucks coaches that have been searching for new gigs for the upcoming year, one of whom found his next job earlier this summer - Glen Gulutzan - who was named the Head Coach of the Dallas Stars.

A couple weeks ago, another former Vancouver Canucks coach came off the market following a report that he was able to land a new job overseas, alongside someone he's quite familiar with.

At the end of July, Mikhail Zislis of Sport-Express.ru shared that in addition to hiring Gerard Gallant as their new Head Coach, KHL club Kunlun Red Star is going to be bringing in ex-Vancouver Canucks assistant Mike Kelly to join their staff.

However in the weeks since that report from Zislis, there was essentially radio silence from Kunlun Red Star regarding their coaching staff, and even their roster, but there was a big reason for that - they were preparing to rebrand and relocate.

While they haven't officially played in China since before covid and aren't expected to return until possibly the 2026-27, Kunlun Red Star announced that they have rebranded and will now be known as the 'Shanghai Dragons'.

Despite the rebrand/relocation, Gallant and Kelly are still expected to be on the coaching staff for the Shanghai Dragons, who will open the 2025-26 KHL campaign on Saturday, September 6th against SKA St. Petersburg.

Kelly, a native of Oakville, Ontario, brings a ton of coaching experience to the Dragons organization including ten years as an assistant in the NHL with Vancouver, Florida, Vegas and the New York Rangers, along with 16 years in various roles across the Canadian Hockey League.