Mike Keenan Fired By KHL’s Kunlun Red Star

Once Mike Keenan was stripped of his GM role this week, it was only a matter of time before the veteran coach was out of a job entirely. The KHL’s Kunlun Red Star made it official today, relieving Keenan of his coaching duties. The KHL’s first and only Chinese team had dropped nine straight games and is struggling to get out of the basement of the KHL’s Eastern Conference. Keenan, who joined the team last month and has been coaching in the KHL since 2013, was clearly not the answer for a team still looking to make a dent as a franchise. The evidence: Kunlun won their first game without Keenan behind the bench today.

Keenan of course is well-known for his time as a coach in the NHL. A tough personality to deal with, Keenan found much success in the NHL, but never with the same team for very long. His first head coaching job in the league was with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1984-85. Keenan spent four years with the Flyers, the next four years with the Chicago Blackhawks, one year with the New York Rangers in 1993-94, in which he led the team to their most recent Stanley Cup title, then three years with the St. Louis Blues, two years with the Vancouver Canucks, one year with the Boston Bruins, three years with the Florida Panthers, and, in his final NHL job to date, two years with the Calgary Flames ending in 2008-09. Keenan made the jump overseas in 2013 to join Metallurg Magnitogorsk and won a KHL championship in his first season. Keenan joined the Red Star after being fired by Metallurg in 2016.

Keenan’s job with Kunlun now goes to his assistant, former NHLer Bobby Carpenter, with other assistants and former pros Cliff Ronning and Igor Kravchuk sticking by as well. The trio have nearly 3000 games of NHL experience between them and, as almost any coach to ever follow Keenan has found, should be able to relate better to the Red Star players.