Mike Keenan is a free agent again.
The highly-successful -- and controversial -- coach was relieved of his duties with Kunlan Red Star in the KHL on Sunday, replaced on an interim basis by former NHL player Bobby Carpenter. Red Star were in the midst of a nine-game losing streak and sinking in the Eastern Conference standings, sitting 11th out of 14 teams, at the time of Keenan's dismissal. Kunlan went out and snapped its skid Sunday with a 4-3 victory over Amur following the firing.
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Kunlan was Keenan's second stop in the KHL after coaching eight different teams in the National Hockey League. He guided Metallurg Magnitogorsk to the Gagarin Cup championship in 2014 -- twenty years after leading the New York Rangers to their first Stanley Cup championship in 54 years in 1994 -- becoming the first coach to capture both the Stanley Cup and Gagarin Cup.
Fired by Metallurg in October of 2015, Keenan joined Kunlan -- the KHL's first team based in China -- on March 16, 2017.
“Mike Keenan has done a great job for several months,” Kunlun president Raitis Pilsetnieks said in a translated SovSport article. “He formed a completely new KHL team, and also took an active part in building the entire club structure, which is part of a large-scale project for the development of Chinese hockey in the run-up to the Winter Olympics in 2022.
“Since March, he worked almost without days off, and we were often amazed at his amazing endurance and efficiency. But, unfortunately, everything has a limit, and the work, coupled with a huge number of flights, is beyond his strength. Therefore, it was decided to return to the original form of cooperation.
"I have no doubt that as a member of the International Coordination Council Mike Keenan will bring a lot of benefits to the club and the Chinese hockey in general.”
So, Keenan, 68, remains in an advisory post for now. Hard to imagine the passionate coach wanting to remain on the sidelines for long.
Does that mean a return to the NHL could be in the offing? The odds seem against it. Keenan last coached in the NHL in 2009 after two seasons with the Calgary Flames where he led them to 94 and 98-point campaigns and two straight playoff appearances -- a solid body of work, but nearly nine years ago.
Keenan is the ninth-winningest coach in NHL history with 672 victories. His 1,386 games coached is seventh-most all time. Keenan took four teams -- the Flyers twice, Blackhawks and Rangers once each -- to the Stanley Cup Final and won one championship in the NHL before his first-year success with Metallurg in the KHL.