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David Quinn

Rangers Hire David Quinn, Joe Sacco As Assistant Coaches

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4:19 p.m.: The Rangers have officially announced their new hires, according to a team statement.

8:38 a.m.: The Rangers are nearing a deal to bring David Quinn back to the organization as an assistant coach under new bench boss Mike Sullivan, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. They’re also expected to add former Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco to Sullivan’s staff after Boston declined to remove his interim tag and hired Marco Sturm today instead. Sullivan’s third and final assistant will be Ty Hennes, who had been on Sullivan’s staff with the Penguins for the last few years, Friedman adds.

Quinn, whose first NHL head coaching job was in New York from 2018 to 2021, spent last year as an assistant under Sullivan in Pittsburgh as well. He also worked with Sullivan as an assistant for the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

It’s exceedingly rare to see a coach return to a team so quickly after he’d been let go, especially in a reduced capacity, but he’ll take the chance to continue working with Sullivan after coming up short in a couple of head coaching searches. The Kraken and Penguins both reportedly interviewed Quinn for their vacancies this offseason.

Quinn will presumably work with a Rangers power play that had its fair share of struggles this year. After clicking at 26.4% in their Presidents’ Trophy-winning 2023-24 season, their man-advantage units converted at just a 17.6% rate this year, fifth-worst in the league.

Sacco heads to MSG after an 11-year run in Boston that began as an assistant in the 2014-15 season. The Massachusetts native survived two head coaching changes before getting a chance himself as the interim for most of this year following Jim Montgomery’s firing in November. He coached the Bruins to a 25-30-7 record, undoubtedly dragged down by a 5-11-2 post-deadline stretch after trading away captain Brad Marchand and top-four defenseman Brandon Carlo.

The 56-year-old’s previous NHL stops include a four-year run as head coach of the Avalanche from 2009-10 to 2012-13 and one year with the Sabres as an assistant in 2013-14. He also coached the United States to a bronze medal at the 2013 World Championship.

Hennes, the tertiary assistant, is by far the least experienced among the group. The 45-year-old has only ever worked in Pittsburgh at the NHL level, only working on the bench since November 2022. Before that, he worked with the Pens for four years as a skating skills coach.

Kraken Linked To Lane Lambert, Mitch Love, David Quinn For Head Coach Opening

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Outside of Rick Tocchet, who landed with the Flyers, there haven’t been many names firmly connected to the Kraken’s head coach vacancy. That changed today when TSN’s Darren Dreger reported they’ve received permission from the Maple Leafs to interview assistant coach Lane Lambert for their head coach role. They’ve also displayed interest in Capitals assistant Mitch Love and Penguins assistant David Quinn, Dreger adds.

It won’t be Lambert’s first go-around as a head coach if he wins the race. The 60-year-old was tabbed as the Isles’ bench boss ahead of the 2022-23 season after four years there as an associate coach. He lasted less than two full seasons there and was replaced by Patrick Roy near the midpoint of the 2023-24 campaign. After finishing the year without a job, he served as Craig Berube’s associate coach in Toronto this year.

Love and Quinn have both been tied to Pittsburgh’s head coach opening as well, with the former as the favorite by all indications. Love has spent the last two years in Washington under 2025 Jack Adams Award nominee Spencer Carbery, his first job on an NHL bench. The 40-year-old has made quick work of his jump up from the junior ranks to the NHL. In his brief two-year stop in the AHL as head coach of Calgary’s affiliate, he won Coach of the Year honors in both seasons.

Quinn is the most known commodity of the trio, something that may work against him in the end for a Seattle club looking to vault upward out of a pair of slightly sub-.500 finishes. Across stops with the Rangers and Sharks over the past six years, the 58-year-old had just a 137-185-50 (.435) record. He’s spent just one year with Pittsburgh, his lone campaign as an assistant in the NHL.

Seattle’s on the hunt for the third head coach in franchise history after they fired Dan Bylsma in April following just one season behind the bench. They’re one of the four active vacancies remaining, although that list is expected to drop to three soon with the Blackhawks on the verge of hiring Lightning assistant and former Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill. Alongside Pittsburgh, the Bruins are also looking for a new coach.

Penguins Have Interviewed Jay Leach, David Quinn, Jay Woodcroft For Head Coaching Vacancy

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The Penguins have obtained permission to and completed an interview with Bruins assistant Jay Leach for their vacant head coaching job, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on Friday’s 32 Thoughts podcast. Friedman added that they’ve also considered promoting assistant David Quinn to the head job and talked to former Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft.

Those names get added to a list that includes former Blues bench boss Drew Bannister, Capitals assistant Mitch Love, and Kings assistant D.J. Smith. Out of the six, Bannister is the only one who hasn’t been confirmed to have an interview.

David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported back in April that the Bruins were receiving calls on Leach for teams interested in interviewing him for head coaching roles, but it’s been quiet since on who’s talked to him. He’s not a complete newcomer to the organization. His first coaching job in North America was as an assistant with the Pens’ AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the 2015-16 season. The Bruins plucked him the following year for their AHL squad, and he’s remained in the Boston organization since, aside from a two-year stint with the Kraken as an assistant in their first two seasons in the league.

Quinn hasn’t been linked to coaching vacancies outside the Pittsburgh organization in this hiring cycle. Of the six candidates mentioned, he has the most experience as an NHL head coach. The 58-year-old took an assistant role in Pittsburgh last summer after being fired by the Sharks. Also, he served on the United States’ bench at the 4 Nations Face-Off as an assistant under Mike Sullivan, whom he’s now considered a potential replacement for with the Pens. The Rhode Island native has a 137-185-50 (.435) record in 372 regular-season games as a head coach with San Jose and the Rangers since 2018. His only playoff appearance was in the 2020 qualifying round, and the Hurricanes swept his New York club.

This is the first mention of Woodcroft in connection with the Pens’ vacancy. He’s been considered for two other jobs this summer – the Ducks and the Bruins. While the former opted to hire Joel Quenneville instead, he’s still a legitimate possibility in Boston and likely has a better chance of landing that gig with a smaller field of known candidates. The 48-year-old had a 79-41-13 (.643) record over three seasons as bench boss in Edmonton. His Pittsburgh connection is fragile – he helped defeat the Pens in the 2008 Stanley Cup Final as a video coach with the Red Wings.

Don’t expect news on a hiring until later this month, with general manager Kyle Dubas out of the country, Josh Yohe of The Athletic said yesterday. He’s GMing Canada at the World Championship.

Penguins Notes: Jarry, Karlsson, Power Play

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Rob Rossi of The Athletic tweeted that Pittsburgh Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry missed practice today due to a medical appointment. Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also tweeted about Jarry’s appointment saying that Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan wouldn’t go into detail about the nature of Jarry’s appointment but did tell the media that Jarry should be back on the ice tomorrow.

Jarry hopes to have a bounce-back season as he enters the second year of his five-year contract. He reportedly showed up in terrific shape for training camp according to Sullivan and is likely hoping to have a better second half of the season after fading down the stretch in each of the previous two years. Jarry lost the net late last season and didn’t start in the Penguins’ final 13 games to conclude the regular season.

In other Penguins notes:

  • Penguins’ defenseman Erik Karlsson remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury (as per Rossi of The Athletic). Karlsson skated before practice today, and the team didn’t provide an update on the status of the 34-year-old. Karlsson has been skating on his own for the past few days as he tries to recover and neither he nor the team appear worried about his health status going forward. Karlsson had an uneven first season with Pittsburgh last year, posting 11 goals and 45 assists in 82 games, and will be counted on heavily to try and get the Penguins back to the postseason for the first time since 2022.
  • Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now writes that the Penguins have begun work on overhauling the power play that cost them a playoff spot last season. Pittsburgh finished with an abysmal 15.3% success rate with the man advantage last season, placing them 30th in the NHL. The team brought in assistant coach David Quinn during the offseason to make changes to the unit, and it appears that work has started. The Penguins have eliminated the firm bumper position and are instead using that forward in the slot to create traffic in front of the net, as well as puck support. The team will be hoping to create more chaos around the crease this season, something they weren’t able to do much of last season.

USA Hockey Adds David Quinn, John Tortorella To 4 Nations Coaching Staff

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USA Hockey has added Penguins assistant coach David Quinn and Flyers head coach John Tortorella to its staff for next year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, the governing body announced Wednesday.

Quinn and Tortorella will serve under the former’s new boss, Pittsburgh’s Mike Sullivan, at the event. They complete the core coaching staff after Wild head coach John Hynes was announced as an assistant earlier this summer.

In recent years, the 58-year-old Quinn has become a fixture behind the U.S. men’s national team bench. The Rhode Island native was the Americans’ head coach at the 2022 Winter Olympics and World Championship and returned in the same role at the Worlds in 2023.

However, Quinn failed to lead the U.S. to a medal at any event. He also served as an assistant at the 2007, 2012 and 2016 Worlds, going medalless in those as well.

Tortorella’s international experience is much more limited. The 66-year-old was last involved with Team USA at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, serving as head coach. He didn’t medal there, nor did he as head coach at the 2008 World Championship and as an assistant at the Worlds in 2005.

Both are experienced winners at the collegiate and professional levels, though. Tortorella guided the Lightning to their first championship in 2004 and won the Jack Adams Award twice, first in the championship year with Tampa Bay and again with the Blue Jackets in 2017. He also won the Calder Cup as head coach of the AHL’s Rochester Americans in 1996.

Quinn, meanwhile, won five Hockey East championships as an associate and head coach at Boston University. He was also the associate coach on the Terriers team that won the national championship in 2009.

Jack Eichel, Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, Auston Matthews, Charlie McAvoy, and Matthew Tkachuk were the first six players named to the U.S. roster for the tournament back in June. The rest of the NHL-only contingent will be announced later this year.

Penguins Name David Quinn Assistant Coach

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June 12: The Penguins officially added Quinn to Sullivan’s staff as an assistant Wednesday, the team announced. He’ll oversee the team’s defensemen, but the release did not say that he’d be running their power play. It’s still unclear whose responsibility that will be as the team tries to return to postseason play in 2024-25.

June 11: The Penguins are likely bringing in former Rangers and Sharks head coach David Quinn to join their staff, The Athletic’s Arthur Staple reports Tuesday.

Quinn, 57, will serve as an assistant or associate under head coach Mike Sullivan, who’s expected back next season for his 10th year with the club. He replaces outgoing associate coach Todd Reirden. The Penguins announced over a month ago that they were not renewing Reirden’s contract.

If Reirden’s duties are replaced directly, Quinn will work closely with Pittsburgh’s defense group and oversee their power play. That reunites him on both fronts with Erik Karlsson, who he coached to a Norris Trophy and 101-point season with the Sharks last year.

Overall, though, Quinn must get the power play back on track. The Pens’ man advantage finished third-worst in the league this season, clicking at just 15.3%. It’s an unacceptable number for any team, but even more so for a club with Karlsson, Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Bryan Rust still around.

The Sharks fired Quinn shortly after the end of the regular season with one year left on his contract. While the roster wasn’t built to give him much support, he guided San Jose to a 19-54-9 record and 47 points, putting them squarely in the conversation for one of the worst teams of the salary cap era.

He’d held the post for two seasons, his second NHL head coaching job after leading the Rangers from 2018 to 2021. It’s been a long time since Quinn took a secondary role on a coaching staff, last serving as an assistant coach for the Avalanche in 2012-13.

He then returned to Boston University, where he had a brief playing career and an earlier run as an associate coach, to take over their program. Over five seasons with Quinn at the helm, the Terriers won three Hockey East titles, and he was named the conference’s Coach of the Year in 2014-15.

The remainder of Sullivan’s staff this season – assistants Ty Hennes, Mike Vellucci and goaltending coach Andy Chiodo – is expected to return.

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