Without any coaches on expiring contracts without club options, it’s likely to be a quieter summer than normal on the coaching carousel. The one name on most radars is Rangers bench boss Peter Laviolette, who has one year left on his deal. Speaking on Insider Trading yesterday, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic called Laviolette’s future “low-hanging fruit,” adding, “The expectations from a lot of people I’ve talked to is that Peter Laviolette could get fired.”
There’s no denying New York’s nightmarish season. After a 55-win 2023-24 campaign that saw them win the President’s Trophy, they’re just two games over .500 with three contests remaining on their schedule and have just a 0.3% chance of leapfrogging the Canadiens for the final playoff spot in the East, per MoneyPuck. Goaltending certainly isn’t to blame – star starter Igor Shesterkin ranks fourth in the league with 21.9 goals saved above expected. Nor is poor finishing luck – the Rangers’ 10.7% shooting rate this year is 0.1% above the league average.
A limping power play and poor team defense jump out as the Rangers’ limiting factors this season. The latter could certainly be attributed to the team’s blue line overhaul, but the same issues persisted before New York’s midseason retool on defense. It’s easy to see why, with limited roster maneuverability available this summer, the Rangers might view a coaching change as their best chance to return to postseason action in 2025-26. Barring another cap-clearing trade, the club won’t be a major player in free agency – they have just $9.67MM in cap space for next year with pending RFAs William Cuylle and K’Andre Miller in need of new deals.
That means Laviolette’s seat is the hottest of them all as the end of the regular season draws nigh. The same can’t be said for general manager Chris Drury, whom LeBrun expects to remain in his post. “My sense there is that he should be okay. I think there’s a lot of loyalty from Jim Dolan, the owner,” LeBrun said. “He was pretty busy out of the trade deadline, too, really kind of setting up his offseason with a lot of moves he made. I think he plans to be aggressive in trying to retool the Rangers again here this summer.”
There won’t be many recently-fired options for the Rangers to choose from, unless they’re interested in pursuing a reunion with John Tortorella. In terms of high-profile names who spent this year on the sidelines, Bruce Boudreau could be a realistic option. The veteran bench boss expressed an interest in taking over the Devils last year but was passed over for Sheldon Keefe.
Looking internally would risk digging their hole of being a non-dominant possession team even deeper. Associate head coach Phil Housley would theoretically be next in line, but his previous shot as an NHL head coach didn’t go well. He posted a 58-84-22 record over a pair of seasons with the Sabres from 2017 to 2019.
Joel Queneville
He still has not admitted the truth.NO
Who cares
Peca.
Wasn’t he in charge of the power play this season?
Bring in a guy that has full f***ing say and keep Dolan Drury and anyone else if the coach sits guys let him..clown show
I don’t think Drury is interfering, to be honest. Otherwise, Perrault and Othmann would have played in last night’s meaningless match. Why would Drury burn Perrault’s ELC and then tell Lavi to scratch him? That’s evidence it’s up to Lavi, dumb decisions be damned. I think it’s Laviolette who isn’t sitting Kreider or K’Andre. Drury wants to jettison Kreider — I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if he sat.
Peca wouldn’t be a bad idea. I dunno if Coach Q makes sense because they already have a bad locker room vibe and bringing in a guy who resigned at his last job over a sex crime scandal might not be a good look for a franchise looking for vibe turnaround.
A lot of people are looking at David Carle now that Denver U has been eliminated.
I don’t think this team would respond to Torts. I think discipline and accountability are big issues BUT I think the real issue is strategy and system, and in-game flexibility. Fox mentioned how the team still can’t execute the man-on-man D — why did Laviolette stick with it for 82 games?
But I don’t know if any of it will matter as this core is declining with age.
He is part of the current coaching staff that the players have tuned out do to Drury not being intelligent enough to read Jacob Trouba contract correctly, and having a deal blowup at the draft in Jim Dolan’s sphere after instructing the team president not to trade the number one draft choice so his team can appear at the sphere in the first round
I love watching the Rangers crash and burn every season. Makes me happy. One Cup in 85 years and counting. One thing about the Rangers I will miss though. It’s a Power Play Goal. Good luck to Sam Rosen, a class act among a total classless organization.