The New York Rangers have confirmed the hires of three previously reported coaching staff additions this morning. Former Buffalo Sabres head coach Phil Housley has been named an associate head coach, while Dan Muse and Michael Peca were named assistant coaches.
Housley is the main attraction here, bringing over two decades of coaching experience (nearly a decade in the NHL) to the Rangers’ completely overhauled bench, led by veteran head coach Peter Laviolette. Housley had worked under Laviolette with the Nashville Predators from four seasons (2013 to 2017) before heading to Buffalo, where he spent the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns as their head coach. He then spent three years as an assistant coach with the Arizona Coyotes until the 2022-23 campaign, which he took off from coaching.
Housley also has a solid bit of experience dealing with younger players and achieving success in the process, capturing the gold medal at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship with the United States. Muse joins him in that regard, spending the last three seasons as the coach of the U.S. National Team Development Program, which has churned out a number of elite prospects such as Cutter Gauthier, Frank Nazar, Jimmy Snuggerud, Lane Hutson, Logan Cooley, and Luke Hughes, as well as 2023 eligibles such as Gabe Perreault, Oliver Moore, Ryan Leonard, and Will Smith in that time. He was the video coach for Housley’s win at the 2013 World Juniors and got a gold medal of his own as the Americans’ head coach at this year’s U18 World Juniors tournament.
Muse and Peca have both also worked with Laviolette, with Muse spending three years as an assistant in Nashville while Peca worked with Laviolette as a player development coach with the Washington Capitals in 2020-21. The Rangers didn’t disclose the specific roles each coach will be taking on with the team.
The additions fill out a coaching staff that was nearly wiped clean after the team parted ways with head coach Gerard Gallant and assistants Gord Murphy, Jim Midgley, and Mike Kelly. Only goaltending coach Benoit Allaire remains from last year’s core coaching staff.