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John Tortorella Not Expected To Join Rangers

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May 2: Tortorella interviewed the Rangers about an undisclosed role, but it didn’t yield a job offer, Kaplan said Friday.

May 1: While it appears that the Rangers are closing in on naming Mike Sullivan as their next head coach, he might not be the only veteran bench boss the team hires.  ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Kevin Weekes report (Twitter link) that John Tortorella is a strong candidate to rejoin the organization.

Tortorella, of course, spent parts of six seasons with the Rangers, spanning from the 2008-09 season through the 2012-13 campaign plus a brief four-game stint in 1999-2000.  New York had some success during the regular season over that stretch with the team playing to a .583 points percentage under Tortorella, his best points percentage out of any of the teams he coached.  However, postseason success proved to be more elusive with the team only winning 19 of 44 games, getting to the Eastern Conference Final just once over that stretch.

The 66-year-old is certainly well-traveled as a head coach with stints in Tampa Bay (seven years), Vancouver (one year), Columbus (six years), and most recently Philadelphia (three years) where he was let go with nine games left in the regular season.

With Sullivan presumably coming on board, the head coaching vacancy won’t be going to Tortorella.  It has been a while since he has been an NHL assistant coach; that hasn’t been the case since the 2000-01 campaign where he was an assistant with the Lightning before taking the top job midseason.  He did, however, serve as an assistant with Buffalo (1989-90 through 1994-95), Phoenix (1997-98 and 1998-99), as well as the 99-00 campaign with the Rangers beyond that four-game stint as the interim head coach.  It’s also possible that Tortorella could be coming onboard in more of an advisory capacity but either way, it looks like he won’t be out of a job for long.

Rangers Hire Mike Sullivan As Head Coach

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May 2, 12:49 p.m.: It’s a five-year contract for Sullivan with an undisclosed AAV, per Emily Kaplan of ESPN. While the exact number isn’t known, the deal includes the highest annual salary for a coach in NHL history.

May 2, 8:00 a.m..: As expected, the Rangers will make Sullivan’s hire official on Friday morning, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The team released a formal announcement a few moments after Friedman shared the news.

May 1: The New York Rangers are expected to hire Mike Sullivan as the 38th coach in franchise history, per Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports. Sullivan spent the last 10 seasons as the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 – his first two seasons as Pittsburgh’s head coach.

Pittsburgh missed the postseason for the third-straight season this year – but even despite that, news of Sullivan’s mutual departure sent shockwaves around the hockey world. He was the second-longest tenured head coach in the league at the time of his dismissal, behind only Jon Cooper with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In March, Sullivan reaffirmed his desire to stick in Pittsburgh long-term, telling Josh Yohe of The Athletic that he didn’t wish to coach anywhere but Pittsburgh. That sentiment seemed to hold true through the end of the season, with Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas even sharing that Sullivan was expected to return for 2025-26 just one week before he left the team. When all was said and done, the 57-year-old bench boss opted to explore free agency for the first time since 2015.

Should the news hold true, Sullivan will be returning to old roots by rejoining the Rangers organization. He served as an assistant coach to John Tortorella in New York from 2009 to 2013. His presence helped New York push back into the postseason in three straight seasons, after missing the playoffs in 2010. Sullivan parted ways with the Rangers before their run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014 – instead joining the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant for the 2013-14 campaign, then heading to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for an AHL role in 2015-16.

Sullivan coached in just 24 AHL games before being promoted to the top flight, following the dismissal of Mike Johnston. What Sullivan was able to create in Pittsburgh over the subsequent 10 seasons was nothing short of incredible. Pittsburgh had no shortage of playoff experience when Sullivan took over – having made the postseason for nine-straight seasons. But aside from a Cup final loss in 2008, and a Cup win in 2009, the squad had fallen into a deep rut of dazzling regular season success followed by quick playoff exits. Sullivan was the one to change that, pushing the Penguins to the fourth and fifth Cup wins in franchise history and prolonging their playoff streak to an impressive 16 seasons – before they finally missed out in 2023. With Sullivan’s help, Pittsburgh’s playoff streak lasted longer than the Buffalo Sabres’ ongoing playoff drought – 16 seasons to 14 seasons – and the Rangers are certainly hoping he can continue that success across the Metropolitan Division.

The 2024-25 season was a historic low for the Original Six club. In front of Peter Laviolette, in his second year at the helm, New York posted a bleak 39-36-7 record – their worst win percentage since posting a 32-36-14 record in the 2018-19 season. The season was disappointing in every aspect, undercut by the fact that the Rangers posted a franchise record 114 points (55-23-4 record) last season. Career-long goal-scorer Chris Kreider managed just eight assists and 30 points in 68 games, while Alexis Lafreniere continued to underperform and the defense looked lost at sea. They were just three of the many headlines to pour out of New York over the course of the year – which culminated in New York missing the postseason for the first time since 2021.

But even on the heels of a bad year, the Rangers will offer Sullivan plenty to work with. They have franchise cornerstones locked up for the foreseeable future in former Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox and Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin. Star forwrad Artemi Panarin is also under contract through the 2025-26 season, while Kreider and Mika Zibanejad are signed through at least 2027. That forward group will look to lead an otherwise very young corps, headlined by top pick Lafreniere, emerging pieces like William Cuylle and Adam Edstrom, and top prospects Gabriel Perreault, Brennan Othmann, and Brett Berard. That should be more than enough firepower to make a playoff champion, especially under the guide of a head coach who got the most out of scorers like Rickard Rakell, Michael Bunting, and Philip Tomasino.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rangers Sign Juuso Pärssinen To Two-Year Extension

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The Rangers have retained pending restricted free agent forward Juuso Pärssinen on a two-year deal for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 campaigns, per a team announcement. It’s worth a total of $2.5MM with a cap hit of $1.25MM, Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports.

Pärssinen, 24, arrived in New York in March when the Blueshirts acquired him from the Avalanche in the Ryan Lindgren trade. It was the young Finn’s second move of the season. He kicked off his third NHL campaign as a member of the Predators, who selected him in the seventh round in 2019, but was sent to Colorado in a minor trade in December after struggling to stay in the lineup.

On the year, the 6’3″, 212-lb pivot posted 6-10–16 with a minus-five rating in 48 appearances across the three clubs. From a points-per-game perspective, that’s a minor improvement on his 2023-24 sophomore slump, in which he was limited to 12 points in 44 games with Nashville. He got his offense going again despite averaging 10:32 per game after averaging north of 14 minutes per night across his first two NHL campaigns.

The fact that he’s no longer waiver-exempt has likely helped his case for staying on NHL rosters, but he had a strong finish to the campaign that likely helped his case for an opening-night job in 2025-26. Considering the Rangers gave him $100K more than the maximum buriable cap hit in the minors, that’s something they’re anticipating. After the move, Pärssinen averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game for New York but scored five points in his final three games of the campaign, adding a plus-one rating with 14 blocks and 17 hits.

Pärssinen does have legitimate offensive upside. In his first NHL showing in 2022-23, he posted a 6-19–25 scoring line in 45 games for the Preds after an early-season call-up from AHL Milwaukee. That’s an 11-goal, 46-point pace over an 82-game campaign. It’s certainly unreasonable to expect him to replicate those numbers if new head coach Mike Sullivan continues deploying him in a fourth-line role, but he can be a useful play-driver deep in the lineup.

By signing now, Pärssinen avoids a bout with RFA status for the second time in as many years. He spent almost the entire offseason unsigned by Nashville in 2024 before coming to terms on a league-minimum deal the week before training camp opened. His deal includes a $1.05MM base salary and a $150K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a base salary of $1.3MM with no bonuses in 2026-27, per PuckPedia. He’ll be one year away from UFA status when his deal expires, and the Rangers will need to tender a $1.3MM qualifying offer to retain his signing rights upon expiry.

The Rangers now have just $8.42MM in cap space for next season with a roster size of 19, per PuckPedia. Without any cap-clearing moves, that will be eaten up quickly by new deals for pending RFAs William Cuylle and K’Andre Miller.

Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.

New York Rangers Expected To Pursue Mike Sullivan

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If the New York Rangers had it their way, they’d have their new head coach signed in the next couple of days. According to Elliotte Friedman from Sportsnet, the Rangers are expected to pursue Mike Sullivan’s services aggressively.

Before he was brought into the Penguins organization to be the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2015-16, and before he served as the Canucks assistant coach and Blackhawks development coach, Sullivan served as the Rangers assistant coach from 2009-2013.

During that time, John Tortorella was the Rangers’ head coach, while Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan were the team’s captains. Unfortunately, Sullivan had already left the organization by the time New York returned to their first Stanley Cup Final in 20 years in 2014. 

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Eastern Conference Notes: Martin, Puljujarvi, Lukashevich

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The New York Rangers have opted to sign general manager Chris Drury to a multi-year extension even after a convoluted and disappointing campaign. That decision could leave assistant general manager Ryan Martin open to finding a promotion elsewhere this summer, and maybe even a move to the New York Islanders, per ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski.

Martin has served as the general manager of the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack for the last four seasons, in addition to his assistant role with the Rangers. He’s an experienced professional in the hockey world, set to reach his 20th season in an NHL front office next season. The bulk of that time was spent in the Detroit Red Wings organization, where Martin began his career as the Director of Hockey Administration in 2005. He served in that role for five seasons before a promotion to assistant general manager in 2010.

The Red Wings added AHL general manager to his title two years later. Martin led the Grand Rapids Griffins to an AHL championship in his first year at the helm in 2012-13, then won again with a new head coach in 2016-17. The Griffins made the postseason in seven out of eight years under Martin, and missed back-to-back playoffs after he left in 2020-21.

Martin continued his strong streak in Hartford. After only making the playoffs once in the prior seven years, the Wolf Pack have made two of a possible four postseason appearances under Martin’s reign – missing in his first season with the club (2021-22) and this season. That’s a dazzling record for a seasoned executive, and could be exactly what some NHL teams  consistently on the fringe of the postseason – like the Islanders – are looking for in their next managerial hire.

Other notes from out East:

  • The Florida Panthers have recalled forward Jesse Puljujarvi but plan to soon send him back down, per Colby Guy of The Palm Beach Post. Guy shares that Puljujarvi will serve his two-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay Lightning forward Mitchell Chafee, before returning to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers for their Calder Cup Playoff run. Puljujarvi received the suspension after Florida’s final game of the regular season. He only played in five games on the Panthers roster this year, with one goal and 15 penalty minutes to show for it. Puljujarvi has been far better in the minors, with 13 points in 22 games with Charlotte and a combined 16 points in 26 games on the full season. Puljujarvi began the season in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization.
  • Sticking in Florida, 2021 fourth-round pick Vladislav Lukashevich has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal per NHL.com’s Mark Divver. Lukashevich is expected to transfer to Miami University per Divver and sources available to Pro Hockey Rumors. In Miami, Ohio –  Lukashevich will reunite with former USHL head coach Anthony Noreen. Lukashevich scored seven points in 29 games with Michigan State University this season, while serving in a bottom-pair role. A move to a smaller school should offer a path to more opportunity and, hopefully, more scoring.

New York Rangers Agree To Multi-Year Extension With Chris Drury

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The New York Rangers are sticking with the current leader of their front office. The Rangers announced a multi-year extension with General Manager Chris Drury.

In the announcement, MSG Sports Executive Chairman and CEO James Dolan wrote, “I am pleased that Chris will continue to lead the Rangers hockey operations in his role as President and General Manager. Over his tenure, Chris has shown passion for the Rangers, relentless work ethic, and a tireless pursuit of excellence. While we are all disappointed in what transpired this past season, I am confident in his ability to guide this organization to success.”

Despite working for New York’s front office since the 2015-16 season, Drury has spent the last four seasons as the team’s General Manager. Although he cannot be fully credited, the Rangers have appeared in two Eastern Conference Finals under Drury, additionally winning the President’s Trophy last season.

Beginning with the draft, Drury has made three selections in the first round, with his first being Brennan Othmann from the OHL’s Flint Firebirds in 2021. Othmann has yet to break out at the NHL level, but has been extremely successful with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack. Drury’s most impressive selection came two years later, when the Rangers selected Gabriel Perreault with the 23rd overall pick. After an incredible two-year run with Boston College, Perreault projects to be a quality top-six forward for years to come in New York.

Unfortunately, Drury’s tenure as General Manager becomes checkered when analyzing his trade history. Drury is credited with trading away Brett Howden, Pavel Buchnevich, and Nils Lundkvist, while failing to bring back anything of legitimate value in those deals. Still, Drury can be aggressive on the trade market when he needs to be, acquiring Patrick Kane, Vladimir Tarasenko, and J.T. Miller while being able to move the heavy contract of defenseman Jacob Trouba.

He’s been a toss-up when it comes to perusing the free agent market. Drury signed Barclay Goodrow and Patrik Nemeth to burdensome contracts, but also locked up Igor Shesterkin, Vincent Trocheck, Adam Fox, and Alexis Lafreniere to long-term deals.

Still, like it is for all of the Original Six organizations, the proof is in the pudding. Although some teams may feel content with two Conference Final appearances in three years, the Rangers faithful are still hungry for their first Stanley Cup banner in 31 years. Despite agreeing to a multi-year extension with the Rangers, the pressure to perform shouldn’t escape Drury.

Rangers Notes: Kreider, Schneider, Edstrom

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Rangers winger Chris Kreider ended the season dealing with a hand injury that may require offseason surgery, he told reporters during today’s end-of-season media availability (via Peter Baugh of The Athletic). That’s on top of the known back troubles that bothered him earlier this season. Kreider also said an illness he developed shortly after the holiday break led him to develop vertigo temporarily.

Kreider said he sustained the hand injury in the first game following the 4 Nations break, so that ties into his six-game absence and injured reserve stint leading into the trade deadline. All of those ailments give some context to what was a disastrous season for Kreider, who was limited to 22 goals and 30 points in 68 games after topping the 30-goal and 50-point marks in each of the previous three seasons. That drop-off led to his name landing on the trade block for much of the campaign, and David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said last week he expects the Rangers to continue shopping him over the offseason.

Surgery to address his ailments could prove beneficial to his trade value with interested teams hoping his injuries were the principal reason for his steep offensive regression. He can block a trade to 15 teams and has two years left on a deal carrying a $6.5MM cap hit. He did still manage to score at a 27-goal pace this year while shooting slightly south of his career average, so if there are enough teams high on the 33-year-old’s rebound potential, there may not be a need for Blueshirts general manager Chris Drury to retain a portion of his salary. Kreider did end his season on a high note with a goal, three assists, and a plus-four rating in his final two outings.

On the back end, Braden Schneider has already undergone surgery to repair the torn labrum that caused him to miss the final two games of the regular season (via Baugh). Schneider said he’s been playing through the partial tear for the last two seasons but felt it impeded his physicality in 2024-25, influencing him to go under the knife. Those procedures can carry fairly lengthy recovery times, so his decision to undergo surgery as soon as the Blueshirts were eliminated from playoff contention could be the difference in determining whether he’s available when training camp begins in September.

Schneider, 23, scored a career-high 6-15–21 this year and played all 80 games up until undergoing surgery. He tied his career-high plus-nine rating and saw the most minutes of his career at 17:52 per game, seeing increased deployment after the Rangers traded ex-captain Jacob Trouba to the Ducks in early December. Now the team’s de facto No. 3 defenseman behind Adam Fox and K’Andre Miller, he’ll garner a considerable raise on his current $2.2MM AAV after he becomes eligible to sign an extension on July 1.

Depth winger Adam Edstrom said he underwent surgery to address his lower-body injury and should be fully healthy in time for training camp this fall (via Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today). The Rangers announced in early February that Edstrom would miss 10 to 14 weeks with a lower-body injury, and Edstrom reaffirmed today he would have been an option at some point in the postseason had New York qualified. The 6’6″ 24-year-old ended his rookie season with 5-4–9, a minus-five rating, and 27 PIMs in 51 appearances while averaging 9:16 per game.

Rangers Fire Peter Laviolette And Phil Housley

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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.

Rangers Plan To Explore Chris Kreider Trade This Summer

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Despite being mentioned in trade rumors for much of the season, New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider spent the entire year in the Big Apple. Don’t expect Kreider’s name to disappear from the trade wire as The Fourth Period reports the Rangers will again look to move their veteran sniper this offseason.

The Rangers will technically have the opportunity to retain salary if they desire, but it’s likely a non-starter from their perspective. As the article in The Fourth Period mentions, the primary reason for moving Kreider is to shed salary in preparation for K’Andre Miller and William Cuylle’s new deals.

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Rangers Recall Matthew Robertson

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The New York Rangers have recalled defenseman Matthew Robertson, per a team release. The 24-year-old is expected to make his NHL debut as Braden Schneider will sit out the final two games of the season with an upper-body injury, adds Mollie Walker of the New York Post.

The team’s second round selection in the 2019 draft, Robertson has spent the last four seasons in the AHL. In 60 games for the Hartford Wolfpack this season, Robertson has put up one goal, 25 points and 55 penalty minutes. Throughout his time in the AHL, the 6’4, 200-pound defender has put up 80 points and 176 penalty minutes in 250 games. Prior to that, Robertson spent five seasons in the WHL with the Edmonton Oil Kings, where he put up solid numbers for a defender. In 208 WHL games, Robertson posted 127 points, which included averaging a point-per-game in his final season.

While he was a highly regarded prospect, the left-handed Robertson hasn’t been able to crack the NHL lineup since being drafted. Although he’ll be making his first appearance with the Rangers, he is set for restricted free agency following the season. With this said, Robertson still ranks toward the top of the franchise’s defensive prospects list, so it stands to reason the Rangers will look to bring Robertson back into the fold.

Robertson may also have a clearer path to playing in New York next season, as K’Andre Miller is also set to be a restricted free agent and is a due a raise on his current $3,872,000MM AAV. Zachary Jones is also set for restricted free agency. Calvin de Haan, who the team acquired earlier this year in a trade with the Avalanche, is set to become a free agent after the season and recently had choice words for how he feels he’s been treated by the team. So, it’s safe to say de Haan will be looking a role elsewhere starting this summer.

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