The New York Rangers have not had much luck when it comes to their head coaches in recent seasons.
In his first season with the franchise in 2021-2022, Gerard Gallant took the Blueshirts to the Eastern Conference Finals, only to lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. The following season, the team was knocked out of the first round in seven games by the New Jersey Devils.
After Gallant, Peter Laviolette took the head coaching reins. In his first year, he led the Rangers to the Presidents’ Trophy and got them to within two wins of reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
This past season was a nightmare for Laviolette and the Rangers. They missed the playoffs all together and he got fired at the end of the season.
As a result, Rangers President and General Manager, Chris Drury, got the man he wanted all along to be the team’s head coach. He announced on Friday, May 2, that Mike Sullivan will be the next coach of the team.
Sullivan has a terrific pedigree. He led the Pittsburgh Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, which is only the second time that a head coach won the Cup in his first two seasons with the club.
In 917 games as a head coach (Penguins and the Boston Bruins), he is 479-311-15-112. The majority of his success came with the Penguins as he was 409-255-89 in 753 games with two Cups and many playoff appearances.
As mentioned above, many believe that Sullivan is the guy that Drury always wanted to have as his head coach. Prior to the 2021-22 season, Drury checked to see if Sullivan was staying with the Penguins and when it was announced that he was, Drury pivoted to Gallant.
Sullivan certainly has familiarity with several current Blueshirts. He coached Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, J.T. Miller, and Jonathan Quick in international hockey events.
It will be interesting to see who will join Sullivan behind the bench. With that said, the team definitely found their guy in Sullivan, and now it is up to Drury to supply him with the right roster in order to get back to being a Cup contender.
ITR 36: Coaching Carousel – Inside The Rink
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