The Rangers are making some changes behind the bench. The team has dismissed head coach Peter Laviolette and associate head coach Phil Housley, per a team announcement. GM Chris Drury released the following statement:
Today I informed Peter Laviolette and Phil Housley that we’re making a coaching change. I want to thank them both and wish them and their families all the best going forward. Peter is first class all the way, both professionally and personally, and I am truly grateful for his passion and dedication to the Rangers in his time as head coach.
After finishing with the best regular season record in the NHL a year ago and making a trip to the Eastern Conference Final, we came into this season with high expectations for ourselves. Quite simply, we failed to meet those expectations. We must all do better – myself included. As we head into next season and beyond, I felt that a change was necessary in order to give us the best chance to achieve our goals as an organization. Our search for a new head coach will begin immediately.
Laviolette departs the Rangers after just two seasons with the team, one that went quite well and one that was anything but. In his first season behind the bench in New York, Laviolette helped guide the Rangers to the Presidents’ Trophy with the team putting up 114 points. They had a solid postseason run to back that up before ultimately falling to Florida in the Eastern Conference Final.
That had expectations quite high heading into this season with the bulk of the core coming back. However, it was a struggle right out of the gate for New York, leading to Drury trying to shake up his roster. Jacob Trouba joined Barclay Goodrow as veteran leaders moved out while Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad were also in trade speculation at times during the season. They never could get things on track, leading to them selling at the trade deadline and ultimately missing the playoffs. The end result was a 29-point dropoff, leaving them six behind New Jersey and Montreal for the final spots in the Metropolitan Division and the Wild Card respectively.
Laviolette had one year left on his contract, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link). He’s no stranger to being hired and fired as that has now happened six different times. Over his 23-year coaching career, the 60-year-old has a 894-562-186 record, good for a .589 points percentage. His 1,594 games as a head coach rank ninth in NHL history and it’s possible that he’ll have a chance to add to that total with Anaheim currently having a vacancy while several other organizations evaluate whether or not to make a change from the interim head coaches they finished with.
As for Housley, he departs the Rangers after two seasons as well having been added to the coaching staff when Laviolette was hired. The long-time blueliner has served as an assistant coach with New York, Arizona, and Nashville while also having a brief stint with Buffalo as their head coach. The 61-year-old should garner some consideration for other assistant positions around the league this summer.
Today’s announcement did not mention other assistants Dan Muse and Michael Peca. Mollie Walker of the New York Post reports (Twitter link) that they will have an opportunity to remain on the staff of the new head coach so for now at least, they remain with the team.
The Rangers enter the summer with less than $10MM in cap space, per PuckPedia, and several players in need of new contracts including defenseman K’Andre Miller and winger Will Cuylle. As a result, shaking up the roster could be a challenge for Drury which will make his next coaching hire that much more important as the new bench boss will be tasked with getting much more out of this veteran group than Laviolette was able to this season.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.
Next up at the chopping block — GMCD…
GMCD: “We must all do better–myself included.” When?
@Germond – A second or two after he gets wind of the pitchforks and torches, followed by the raised voice of ownership, “Where the bleep is that GM???”
The Ranger pick that the Pens got from the Miller deal via the Pettersson deal was top 13 protected.
NYR finished with the 11th pick (pre lottery).
Can NYR decide now “hey, you know what, we might be REALLY bad next year…better to just give the Pens the pick this year” or is it cut and dry top 13 protected end of story?
I’ve never seen any reporting on this.
I’d LOVE to have their unprotected first next year. But if we have #9 and 11 I’d at least try to move into the top 4 this year.
The Rangers get to decide whether it is this year or next. They don’t have to decide until after the lottery.
Yes, they can decide and they should take next years. Next year is supposed to be an extremely deep draft. This year it’s a crapshoot after #5
The only crapshoot is the guy making the pick. David Pasternak was drafted #25 overall in what was alleged to be a weak 2014 draft. Wyatt Johnston leads the 2021 draft in scoring by 31 points and was drafted at #23. Heck, Tim Stutzle is already +123 points on Lafrieniere. Players are always there, the GM needs to be both smart and bold in their selection.
Allons y Danny Briere, get on the phone to Lavy toute de suite.
Jim Dolen will will be doing the exit interviews with the Rangers players
Seriously? Figured he’d be too busy watching the Knicks.
Drury should be the one getting fired. His moves during the season made about as much sense as what Trotz was doing in Nashville.
One correction though: the Rangers actually started out well this season. Then they hit a wall.
Yeah, Drury is awful across the board. They need another rebuild already because of his awful trades and roster management.
The Rangers were 11-4-1 half way through the Western Canada trip. They lost to Calgary by a goal and lost to Edmonton after. The next day Drury sent out a memo to GMs that most players were available.. What was that guy thinking or he wasn’t at all.
After memo to the GMs it because public and the players had it in their heads.. The Spiral began and never correct itself. This is all Drury’s fault.
Dolen new head coach , GM and ass owner. Who would want to go to coach in New York. And the Panarin’ s assault scandal will not help.
It’s spelled Dolan with an A.
Can anyone explain the direction this team is going?
Lottery.
Dolan has no patience for rebuilding. It’s perpetual re-tooling with this team.
He just did it with the Knicks. It worked. There isn’t a need to rebuild this team, either. The majority of the players are under 30 and were the Presidents Trophy winners just last year and just short of attending the cup. This is a coach issue. GM is on the hot seat and gone if they don’t move forward next year.
Backwards, like it always does. Next!
Best news of the day.
It wasn’t the coach, it’s the GM.
Essentially the same team as last year with the addition of JT Miller and the team went from presidents trophy to missing the playoffs. That’s not the coach…?
The Tocchet bidding begins now – Philly, Rangers, Bruins, Ducks, Canucks in that order…
Why isn’t Chris Drury let go as well? He’s the architect of the team. The coach can only do so much with what he’s given. Still they should have made the playoffs
Drury and Dubas should combine forces and open up a school, focusing on teaching hopeful young students how to convince NHL owners they have even a vague idea how to run an NHL team.
Two dudes that just conned people into thinking they had a clue.
Considering what he inherited, Drury’s GM tenure has to be considered one of the worst front office catastrophes in recent memory.
A drunk monkey could have done better.
My favorite time of year. Baseball is back, the day’s are getting longer and warmer. And the Rangers finishing another season without a Cup. I love it! 85 years and only one Cup to show for it. And now let’s play spin the coaching wheel again and hire some big name coach to right the ship. And I always love listening to all the Rangers fans complaining about it. By the way Ranger fans don’t forget to have your hard earned season ticket money in to MSG for next season before May first or you could be in danger of losing your blue seats. Oh, and we have to raise the price again because costs for running this perennial losing franchise have gone up. Also bear with us this year since we’re going to rebuild again, so don’t expect us to compete for a championship next season. But the season after that we hope to be right back at the top of the NHL. Yep my favorite time of year.
hmmm… “Perrault11”- Sabres fan, I presume? I’m sorry, when was the last time they won the Cup? Check that, when was the last time they were even decent or relevant in any way whatsoever?
Well Mr Erixon one shouldn’t presume without knowledge. I am not a Sabre’s fan. Gilbert Perreault was my favorite player. In my opinion the greatest skater I’ve ever seen in the NHL. That aside it still doesn’t take away from the FACT that the Rangers have still only won one Stanley Cup in 85 years. The last one being in 1994, the year after Jan Erixon finished his career in the NHL.
yeah, that’s true. Let us know when you have some new insight to share.
… three months too late.