Gingras spent one season in Birmingham, joining Michel Goulet, Rick Vaive, Craig Hartsburg, Rob Ramage, Pat Riggin and Keith Crowder, all of whom were underage players too young to be eligible for the NHL Draft under the rules at the time.

Birmingham and Cincinnati were not brought under the auspices of the NHL and subsequently disbanded, and their underage players were all declared eligible for the upcoming draft.

Playing first with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American Hockey League, he joined the Canadiens in the 1979–80 NHL season.

Along with other notables, such as Patrick Roy, Stéphane Richer, Brian Skrudland and Ric Nattress, they won the Calder Cup.

[3][4] For the 1985–86 season, he returned to the Montreal Canadiens and was part of their Stanley Cup winning team that beat the Calgary Flames four games to one.

In his NHL career, Gingras played 476 games scored 61 goals and 174 assists for a total of 235 points while collecting 161 penalty minutes in the regular season.