After over a month of searching, speculating, and researching, the New York Rangers have finally found their new bench boss.
The team announced today, June 13th, that they have hired Peter Laviolette to be the new head coach. For Laviolette, this will be his sixth team that he is taking over after having coached for the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators, and Washington Capitals.
Arthur Staple of The Athletic reported that the Rangers also parted ways with assistant coach Gord Murphy. Laviolette will bring in his own guys and keep goaltending mastermind Benoit Allaire.
Ever since NHL bench boss Gerard Gallant and the New York Rangers “mutually” parted ways, lots of names were thrown into the ring to be the team’s next head coach, coaches like Mike Sullivan, Sheldon Keefe, Patrick Roy, John Hynes, Joel Quenneville, and Laviolette were all mentioned.
Laviolette has quite a resume. He has coached five teams, won a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006, and is someone who has a lot of experience in getting his respective teams into the postseason.
For the Rangers, hiring Laviolette shows that they are still in win-now mode. With the roster that the team has and now someone with a Cup behind the bench, the Blueshirts look to be aiming extremely high this upcoming season.
There is no doubt that Laviolette has a lot of experience. He has won a Cup, has coached four teams from the Metropolitan Division, usually gets his teams into the playoffs, and is someone who knows how to make adjustments during the game, something that Gallant had trouble doing.
He is also someone that has been known to get the most out of his players. This is something that could end up being beneficial to guys like Artemi Panarin, Alexis Lafreniere (assuming the team does not trade him), and Kaapo Kakko.
As someone who grew up a Rangers fan, I am not quite sure what to make of this move. For starters, he has been with a lot of different teams.
While a lot of head coaches in the league coach multiple teams in their careers, this will now be his sixth team. That seems to be a lot for someone who has been to the playoffs a lot and won a Cup.
Secondly, how fresh of a voice is Laviolette? He has been around a very long time and while he did win a Cup, this is a guy that gets bounced out of the playoffs a lot or misses the postseason, and he seems to lose the team at some point in his time with the club.
Do the Rangers really need someone like that again? They just had someone like that in Gallant, and we all know how that worked out.
Lastly, this seems like it is a lateral move. Going from one veteran coach to another that besides a Cup, there really is not too much of a difference.
It will be interesting to see what Laviolette can do with this Rangers hockey club, considering the position that the team is in now. If this move does not work out, it could mean the end of general manager Chris Drury on Broadway.
