The Rangers are heading for their fourth coach since the 2020-21 season.
Peter Laviolette was relieved of his coach tasks on Saturday, the team announced, after the Rangers failed to qualify for the playoffs in his second season at the helm.
The blues have become the sixth team to hire and draw the veteran coach, who finished his mandate in New York with a regular season record of 94-59-11 and a record of eliminations of 10-5-1.
Associate coach, Phil Housley, was also dismissed, while assistant coaches Dan Muse and Michael Peca will have the chance to interview the next coach staff, according to a source.
“Today, I informed Peter Laviolette and Phil Housley that we are making a change of coach,” said President and Managing Director Chris Drury in the press release. “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. ”
It is the second consecutive coach of the Rangers to be dismissed after only two campaigns, Laviolette corresponding to the chronology of his predecessor Gerard Gallant. Before Gallant, David Quinn (2018-2021) was the last Rangers coach to last more than two seasons behind the Rangers bench.
Everything seemed to go right in the first season of Laviolette with the Rangers.
Not only did the Rangers established franchise records for the victories (55) and the points (114) in a single season, but the club won the trophy of the presidents and won two victories far from a final place of the Stanley CUP for the second time in three seasons in a final defeat of the East Conference against the possible Champions of the CUP of Stanley, Panthers.
The Rangers also led the whole NHL in the return victories (28) under Laviolette in 2023-24.
Laviolette has become the first head coach in the NHL history to guide six different teams to the Stanley Cup qualifiers.
Everything seemed to be going wrong this season for the Rangers, who took a huge step in all the facets of their game as they lacked the playoff series for the first time in four years.
Although there has not been a lot of laviolette about the outside noise that has been hovering in the locker rooms of the Rangers since the start of the season, the 60 -year -old has not made drastic modifications to the range or the system to effectively remove the blues from their funk.
Laviolette has often remained by her veterans and kept the faith in the past despite little success with. However, a majority of the blame for this disastrous season does not seem to fall on the shoulders of Laviolette.
This belongs to the construction of the list of the president and managing director Chris Drury, as well as the insufficient efforts of the marquee players.
