While the New York Rangers filled the final head coaching vacancy in the league today, officially hiring Peter Laviolette, their offseason work is far from over. The Rangers and Laviolette will need to fill out the rest of his staff, which, per The New York Post’s Mollie Walker, will not include assistant coach Gord Murphy.
Goalie coach Benoit Allaire will be the only returning member from last year’s coaching staff. The Rangers relieved former head coach Gerard Gallant’s other assistants, Mike Kelly and Jim Midgley, early last month.
Murphy had been on the Rangers’ staff only as long as Gallant had: two seasons. He was an internal promotion, though, spending two years with the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack as an associate head coach from 2019 to 2021. The long-time NHL defender and father of Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy, Gord also spent lengthy stints with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Florida Panthers, and Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant.
More from around the league today:
- Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice offered no update on the status of star winger Matthew Tkachuk before tonight’s do-or-die Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final. Tkachuk has not practiced with the team since their Game 4 loss, and his availability for tonight remains up in the air after a hard hit from Vegas Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar in Game 3. Already without the services of Eetu Luostarinen at forward as well, either Givani Smith or Grigori Denisenko could slot into the lineup tonight if Tkachuk can’t go. Smith played just over five minutes in one game during the First Round against Boston, while it would be Denisenko’s playoff debut.
- Yesterday, reporting indicated that early presumptive top-two pick Matvei Michkov could fall completely out of the top 10 choices when the 2023 NHL Draft occurs this month. Today, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman spoke to a panel of anonymous NHL executives and scouts about a myriad of topics, including the perception of Michkov around the league. Multiple executives and scouts still had Michkov pegged in the top two or three spots in the draft, even considering his contract situation and the Russian geopolitical climate. Others were harsher on his play, with one scout saying, “you have a [5-foot-9] not-amazing-skating, average-compete winger.” What did appear clear in the responses, though, was that the extraneous factors surrounding Michkov’s development and NHL future weren’t a huge concern.
Michkov is gonna go Top Ten. My guess would probably be SJ at 4, but definitely no later than Philly at 7, or Washington at 8. I’d like to see the Caps trade up to make sure they get him. Russian hockey can be a bit strange, maybe even Michkov might try to get out of his contract early, to play with Ovechkin. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.
Michkov’s father tried to get him out of his contract, and was found dead in a pond.
“The only reason Michkov’s name is not appearing in the top 3 names in the 2023 NHL draft is that he’s reportedly under contract with SKA Saint Petersburg of the KHL until after the 2025-26 season. McGuire said it’s difficult to determine the true terms of the deal, or even whether Michkov actually signed it.
“That’s why this story will be a bit touchy, because we don’t know if the young man will have to respect the contract he allegedly signed because no one can clearly say if he really signed that contract and if it’s really two years, three years, four years on that contract. That’s what’s a bit annoying in his case.””
link to markerzone.com
Michkov won’t get out of his Russian commitments for at least a couple years and even then he may not come to North America.
It’s a real gamble with the young Russian picks now which is unfortunate. I think he goes somewhere between 6-12.
“It is my dream to play in the NHL one day,” Michkov told NHL.com through an interpreter. “But for now I will continue to work on my game and develop as a player at home.”
link to nhl.com
If Washington drafts him, and sends Ovechkin to talk to him, he’ll listen, and come over to North America. Young Russians worship Ovi, like Canadians with Gretzky.
well supposedly Gretzky warned Bedard about Chicago, he still seems hyped to come here