Rangers coach ‘all in’ despite retool plan, likely roster churn
You may not think Mike Sullivan signed up for this when he became New York Rangers coach last spring. But the two-time Stanley Cup winner contends that he remains “all in” after the Rangers announced plans to retool their roster amid a horribly disappointing season.
“I understand the process. What I’ll tell you is that I am all in on trying to help this organization move forward,” Sullivan said Saturday before the Rangers played the Flyers in Philadelphia.
“[General manager Chris Drury] and I have talked throughout this whole process. We have a very transparent relationship, and I’m going to do everything in my power to try to help this team move forward. I’m going to control what I can and try to be the very best coach that I can be for this organization.”
Likely no one within the organization, least of all Sullivan, foresaw the plummet to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings by the Rangers, who are headed to their second consecutive season out of the playoffs. That followed them reaching the Eastern Conference Final in 2022 and 2024, and winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the best regular season team in 2023-24.
But the core of this team began splintering last season, and despite quite a bit of roster turnover in the past 13 months, not even Sullivan could stop the freefall this season. The Rangers look slow and lack the overall depth and high-end skill level to compete with serious playoff contenders in today’s NHL. A string of injuries to key players hasn’t helped. Entering play Saturday, the Rangers lost four in a row by a 27-10 goal differential without injured No. 1 goalie Igor Shesterkin and top defenseman Adam Fox.
But a certain lack of mental touchness hangs over this team. “Fragile” is a word both Mika Zibanejad and Braden Schneider used recently.
Two simply embarrassing defeats — a 10-2 blowout in Boston against the Bruins last weekend, and an 8-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, when they allowed the first six goals — point to the “fragile” state of the Rangers.
But, it remains somewhat surprising that another such letter and declaration was made, after management’s first stab at a public admission and retool just eight years ago.
“It’s probably a fairly common sensical statement to suggest that when you don’t meet expectations, or you don’t have success, the change is inevitable in pro sports. Is that a fair statement?,” Sullivan said. “So, I think our team is well aware of that, and that’s, to a certain extent, what we all sign up for.”
Rangers ‘going to try to win every game’ despite expected roster turnover
The Rangers advised Artemi Panarin that they won’t offer him a contract extension. But they will work with the pending unrestricted free agent who holds a no-move clause on a trade to a team he prefers, since he must sign-off on any deal.
Official odds favor the Vegas Golden Knights in the expected Panarin sweepstakes. But the question is fair to ask whether the Rangers plan to hold Panarin or other players out of the lineup to protect them from injury as they’re being shopped.
“We’re going to try to win every game. These guys are competitive guys. We’re going to try to win every game in front of us. That’s just the way it’s going to be,” was how Sullivan answered the question.
Sullivan, by the way, sits on 499 career wins and is winless since Jan. 2, when the Rangers rocked the Florida Panthers 5-1 outdoors at the 2026 Winter Classic. Sullivan seeks to become the 31st coach in NHL history to reach the 500-victories milestone.
But there may not be many more wins coming this season, depending on the roster shakeup and/or how the current group reacts to the expected sell-off.
“We’re all human beings. We all understand the business, and we all understand the game,” Sullivan explained. “And so we’re going to do our very best to control what we can. We’re going to bring a good attitude. We’re going to try to bring exceptional effort every night. We’re going to try to play a collective effort game, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
