June 13: The New York Post reported the New York Rangers were expected to name Laviolette their head coach today, and an official announcement from the team came in minutes later. General manager Chris Drury offered a statement:
We are thrilled that Peter will be the next Head Coach of the New York Rangers. With Peter’s extensive experience as a Head Coach in the National Hockey League, as well as the success his teams have had at several levels throughout his career, we are excited about what the future holds with him leading our team.
June 12: Shortly after the Calgary Flames named Ryan Huska their 21st head coach in franchise history, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the New York Rangers are prepared to name their 44th. Although nothing is officially complete now, Friedman writes that Peter Laviolette will man the bench for the Rangers next season unless something dramatic changes.
In just over two years spent as head coach of New York, the Rangers recently let go of head coach Gerard Gallant. In those two seasons spent in New York, Gallant coached the Rangers to a 99-46-19 record, losing in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022, and the first round of the playoffs in 2023. Coaching a team currently constructed as a Stanley Cup contender, the lack of playoff success likely pushed Gallant out the door.
About two weeks before Gallant’s exit in New York, Laviolette was also shown the door by his former employer, the Washington Capitals. Also coaching a team with expectations of playoff success, the Capitals finished this season with a 35-37-10 record and missed the playoffs entirely. After coaching in the United States Capital for three seasons, Laviolette finished his career in Washington with a coaching record of 115-78-27, including two first-round exits.
Although Gallant was able to coach the upstart Vegas Golden Knights to the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals, Laviolette is much more of a proven winner as a head coach. His first head coaching job in the NHL came all the way back during the 2001-02 season, coaching the New York Islanders for two seasons. Finishing his Islanders’ tenure with a 77-62-19-6 record, Laviolette was able to get the Islanders to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
After the Carolina Hurricanes fired then-head coach Paul Maurice after the 2002-03 season, Laviolette quickly joined on as head coach to replace him. Spending five seasons in Carolina, Laviolette’s stay with the Hurricanes was somewhat of a mixed bag. He only finished with a slight winning percentage, going 167-122-6-28, and missed the playoffs three times, having been fired midway through the 2008-09 season. Minus the playoff exits, Laviolette was able to coach the Hurricanes to their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history during the 2006 NHL Playoffs.
Although his tenure in Carolina was a mixed bag, after joining the Philadelphia Flyers as head coach before the 2009-10 season, Laviolette got off to a quick start. The Flyers made the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals but ultimately lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. The following two seasons, the Flyers would be knocked out in the semi-finals in back-to-back years, but still finished as one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference.
After missing the playoffs entirely during the 2012-13 season, Laviolette was quickly dismissed after only three games into the 2014-15 season, not returning to the NHL for the rest of the year. Before the start of the 2014-15 season, Laviolette was named the new head coach of the Nashville Predators. For the first time since his stay with the Islanders, Laviolette was able to coach the Predators to the playoffs every year spent as head coach (before his firing during the 2019-20 season). The most notable playoff appearance in Nashville came during the 2016-17 season, as the team made the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in franchise history, losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.
In all, Laviolette has coached his team to the playoffs 13 times and missed the playoffs only five times after 18 full seasons of coaching. He has appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals three times, and his only successful one came with the Hurricanes back in 2006. The Rangers will become the fifth team that Laviolette has coached within the NHL’s Metropolitan Division.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Hope the Rangers can trade for Tom Wilson who is on the last year of his deal,and has said that he will go to UFA
Where did Wilson say he would go to UFA? He’s already said he’s willing to extend with Washington. I call BS on that.
“”Everyone knows I love it here and I want to be here, no matter what happens,” Wilson said. It’s no secret that Wilson loves the city and the organization”
link to thehockeynews.com
Even if he does get traded, he’ll be expensive. His combination of skill and brute physical force is quite rare, perhaps even unique in today’s game. I’d want a 1st, 2nd and legit prospect for him
More from Tom Wilson:
“”I’m not a guy that’s going to play hardball or say I don’t want to be here… I want to help this city win games, and I think — who knows what’s going to happen over the summer into next year — if I do my job and we start winning games and the team’s playing well, there’s not going to be a lot of question marks,” Wilson noted.”
Yeah, right, Caps are going to trade Wilson 200 miles up the road for whatever underachieving prospects the NYR fanbase wants to offload….makes total sense to me /s
Not sure what the delay is, He’s a winner and the best available coach. Why the Rangers interviewed Hynes is beyond me.
To be fair, most hockey stuff seems beyond you, so this most recent episode is not a shocking development.
As a Capitals fan, why do I get this sinking feeling the Rags will go at least to the conference finals next season?
If he’s such a good coach then why has he coached so many teams? Gotta wonder?????
Peter Laviolette has coached 5 teams. Scotty Bowman, the all time winningest coach in NHL history, has also coached 5: St. Louis, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Montreal and Detroit. Being hired by multiple teams means you’re in demand, and someone thinks you can get the job done.
Scotty Bowman was the finalist to be president, general manager, and coach of the Rangers . Neil Smith was going to be brought it in as assistant general manager. The plan was for Bowman to help Neil Smith for two years, and then go up to president. The deal fell through with Viacom.
My bad Paramont communications, not Viacom
And then Neil Smith and the Rangers won the Cup.
If they don’t make playoffs next year he will certainly be gone after one year…pressure is on for sure..not only him but the superstars..
Another one the five year contract. three year act types. like Sutter ,Tortorella etc.
Give me Gallant over Lavy any day of the week.
There is a hockey worthy person outthere.
The thing the average NYR fan/GM/team owner forgets is the Rangers were in the playoffs what they were in the regular season: streaky offensively and prone to defensive breakdowns that would air out Shesterkin. The NJD were seeded higher and won the series by making a quick and decisive pivot from the original goaltending plan. All the Fantasy Hockey trades didn’t matter…
No coach could’ve done much better with that Caps roster, especially this year’s injured version. A few very good players with very little depth throughout the lineup.
Lavi will do well in NY.
I didn’t like a lot of what Lavy did with Washington, particularly having prospects on the roster sitting for weeks, as healthy scratches, or when they did play, for only about 5 minutes. Thats a waste of development time. Having said that, he did get good mileage out of the team, 11-2-2 in December, until the injuries really piled up. Some players quit on him too, Kuznetsov and Mantha the two most egregious. And Washington wanted him back. It was his decision to leave.
Lavi refused to use younger forwards in the lineup. Instead, he continued to run out underachieving veterans like Anthony Mantha. He deserved to be let go in Washington. Lavi was good at the start of his run in DC, but after a few years, it was time to move on to someone who is more willing to put some youngsters into the lineup. Lavi will likely be good for a year or two with the Rangers, he usually is, but he will be gone in a few years.
You don’t pay Mantha all that money to sit him. Besides, who are these young stars Lavi had to play?
Mantha went nearly 3 months without a goal. He didn’t deserve to be playing at all, let alone top 6. You don’t have to be a young star to be more productive than Mantha was. All you have to do is score a little bit & you would be a more productive player than Mantha was. There were several guys in the minors who could’ve have done what Matha did. Protas would’ve been more productive if you would’ve played him. Laviolette did the same thing in Nashville & it got him fired there. He did it in Washington & it got him fired there.
You mention one guy who may have been better than Mantha. Would that have changed their fate this season? I don’t think so.
The Caps roster just isn’t deep enough to keep pace with other teams in that division. Not Lavi’s fault.
As for his time in Nashville, I’m again not sure what youngsters he wasn’t using properly. Maybe Fiala, but it’s not like the Preds drafted much top end scoring talent to use. Lavi getting that roster to a Cup final was coaching brilliance.
If it would not have changed Washington’s fate, you are better off playing the youngster than an underachieving veteran. The younger player can develop for the future. The Caps are trying to get rid of Mantha, so he’s obviously not in their plans. Playing Protas or another younger player would have at least helped them going forward. Playing Mantha didn’t help the Caps in the present or the future.
Protas, Snively, McMichael, Alexeyev off the top of my head spent too much time not on the roster or scratched. Losing Vrana wasn’t a good thing either a couple years ago.
The Caps had a lot of guys out with injuries in December (Wilson, Backstrom, Oshie and I think Fehrevary etc) and they played the best hockey of the season. That’s WITH most of those injuries which forced the younger guys into the lineup more regularly. Injuries had nothing to do with the season results. They played like absolute crap with all those guys back in the lineup.
Most of the vets on this team are underachieving because they’re being put in roles they can no longer fill at their age or stage of their careers.
The Caps are not a better team without Carlson in the lineup. That alone was a season killer for a bubble playoff team like the Caps.
I guess his tenure in Carolina was “a mixed bag.”
The man loves his enforcers. Had one at every stop