Gerard Gallant comments on the surprising next step in his coaching career.

Earlier this month we learned that now former National Hockey League head coach Gerard Gallant would be taking his talents to the Kontinental Hockey League, where he will take over the coaching staff of the Shanghai Dragons, and now that day has finally arrived.

On Friday, the former Jack Adams Trophy winner landed in St. Petersburg where he expressed his excitement at getting the next chapter of his hockey career underway.

"We had a long flight today and yesterday," said Gallant. "Very excited to get started on the ice tomorrow with our new players... definitely very exciting."

Although Gallant will have to quickly jump into things with the team's first game roughly two weeks away, he admits that he will be taking things slow and steady after such a big change in his professional life.

"It's all new and we are gonna take it one day at a time," admitted Gallant. "We get ready for the first game on September 6th... so it's exciting."

It seems he will apply the same philosophy to his new team, tempering expectations right away and stating that it will be a process from the very beginning.

"We'll see one game at a time, I'm not putting any expectations on our team right now," said Gallant.

Gallant says he intends to get to know his players a little bit better, and give them a chance to get to know them as well, all the while keeping his sights set on the start of the season.

"We'll just introduce each other, get used to other, we have two weeks to get ready for September 6th," said Gallant.

All that said Gallant seemed genuinely enthused about such a big new challenge in his life, and expressed those feelings with a big and genuine looking smile on his face.

"It's all new to me with the KHL, with the Shanghai Dragons, and I'm excited and looking forward to it," said Gallant with a smile. "I know our fans are going to be great to our team."