The New York Rangers announced on Saturday that they had dismissed coach Peter Laviolette after the team did not succeed in the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
New York entered the season with the aspirations of the Stanley Cup after a race at the final of the Eastern Conference of 2024 and the victory of the presidents trophy, but finished with a record of 39-36-7 and did not have a multi-butthered return all season until Monday, his first match after elimination.
Laviolette, who won the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes of Caroline in 2006, ends her time with the Rangers with a record of 94-59-11. The 60 -year -old man, who is seventh in the NHL history with 846 coach victories, came to New York with a reputation for early success before his teams disappear over the years. Although he has fought against factors out of control this season, it ended up being the case with the Rangers.
The New York season was defined by theater and sub-performance. Each veteran key to the team regressed its performance in 2023-24, notably Chris Kreider, who went from 39 goals and 75 points in 82 games in 2023-24 to 22 goals and 30 points in 67 games in 2024-25. Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox, Vincent Trocheck, Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafrenière all had at least 10 points less than last season. The Rangers struggled to find defensive consistency – or the consistency of all kinds. They did not have a sequence of three consecutive victories after November and granted five or more goals on 23 times. Their goals against the figures could have been worse if the team had not obtained strong goalkeepers from Igor Shesterkin, who finished the sixth year of the League in the goals saved above, according to the evolution of hockey.
The team was also faced with their out -of -ice problems, which were not all Laviolette’s fault. General manager Chris Drury has frustrated the members of the locker room by putting Barclay Goodrow in derogations during the summer so that the San Jose Sharks, a team from his non-exchange list, can recover it. Drury also exchanged Captain Jacob Trouba to the Ducks Anaheim, and Trouba said that the Rangers had threatened to derogate him if he did not accept a team on a team on his non-exchange list.
The Trouba trade came to the drum heels by sending a note to the 31 other managers of the League by saying that it was open to players on the list of exchanges. He mentioned Trouba and Kreider by name. The memo arrived early in what became a 5-14-0 section.
The Rangers also had several players publicly questioned their role in the team. Kaapo Kakko said: “I think it’s easy to choose the young guy and get him out” after scratch in December; He was exchanged a few days later. Zac Jones and Jimmy Vesey both expressed their frustration in the face of stripes coherent in interviews with various publications. More recently, Calvin de Haan said that the way the Rangers treated him had been “F – Ed” while he was riding on the ice for an optional morning skate. From Haan, acquired in a package for Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey, played his first three games with the Rangers, then was a scratch for the last 20 games of the season. Laviolette said on Monday that he had communicated with Haan throughout his stay with the team.
After its rocky section in November and December, New York stabilized when the calendar switched to 2025 and on several occasions fired in equality of the second point of East Joker. The Rangers have been tied with Montreal Canadians since April 2. But a sequence of victories of six games from the Canadians associated with New York which was going 4-4-0 in April made sure that the Rangers would miss the playoffs.
Athletics He also released with a report Thursday, on the day of the season final, that Panarin and Madison Square Garden, the company who owns the team, “paid financial colonies to a Rangers employee last year after alleging that Panarin assaulted him sexually”. Asked about the report, Laviolette resumed the MSG declaration which said: “The case was resolved.”
New York had a lot of turnover throughout the season. Drury sent Trouba and Kakko in December, then won a Package centered on JT Miller in January for Filip Chytil, Victor Mancini and a conditional choice in the first round. The Rangers decided to exchange free agents without restriction Lindgren, Vesey and Reilly Smith on the deadline for trade, but brought Nhlers Carson Soucy, Haan and Juuso Pärsinen with eyes on the manufacture of the playoffs.
Given how the season took place, Laviolette seemed to know that a change of coach was possible.
“I think everything is examined when a year is not good like that,” he said on April 13 when he asked him about his job security. “I am not blind to anything. I love being here with these guys and the New York Rangers. This is a year when everything went well in a year when things did not go well. When things are not doing well, I’m sure everything is watched. ”
In 2024-25, the year Laviolette said that everything went well, the Rangers set a franchise record in a single season in victories (55) and points (114). New York fell to the Panthers in six games in the Eastern Conference final.
The Rangers are now looking for their fourth coach since David Quinn’s hiring before the 2018-19 season. Quinn served three seasons, then Gerard Gallant and Laviolette lasted two despite each to drive the Rangers to a final appearance of the conference.
Deputy coach Phil Housley was also dismissed, according to the announcement. A source of the league said Athletics That assistants Dan Muse and Michael Peca will have the opportunity to interview for a position in the next coaching staff.
“Today, I informed Peter Laviolette and Phil Housley that we change coach,” said Drury in a statement. “I want to thank them both and wish them, as well as their families, all the best in the future. Peter is first class all along, both professionally and personally, and I am really grateful for his passion and his dedication to the Rangers in his time as a head coach.
“After finishing with the best NHL regular season record a year ago and made a trip to the final of the Eastern Conference, we have entered this season with high expectations for ourselves. Quite simply, we have not met these expectations. We must all do better to give ourselves the best chances to reach our goals as an organization. Our research for a new Head coach will start immediately.”
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
