Top Rangers coach candidates after Peter Laviolette fired following miserable season
Peter Laviolette paid the price for his inability to get the New York Rangers into the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season when he was fired on Saturday, less than 48 hours after a 4-0 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning capped one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history.
The question now is where will the Rangers turn next. Whoever gets the job will be their third coach in four years.
Laviolette and his predecessor, Gerard Gallant, each lasted two seasons. Each led the team to the Eastern Conference Final and within two wins of the Stanley Cup Final in his first season, followed by a regression in the second. In Laviolette’s case, the “regression” saw them go from finishing first in the League in 2023-24 to missing the playoffs this season, becoming just the fourth team to do so since the Trophy was instituted in 1986.
So, now the question is: who will replace Laviolette as coach of the Rangers?
Related: GM Chris Drury takes blame for Rangers mess after firing coach Peter Laviolette: ‘It starts with me’
Mike Sullivan
Current position: Coach of Pittsburgh Penguins
Call this one the “Fantasy Island” choice.
The two-time Stanley Cup winner with Pittsburgh is under contract with the Penguins through 2026-27, and he said Friday that he intends to stay with them, although they’ve missed the playoffs in each of the past three seasons. Sullivan has Rangers roots – he was an assistant under John Tortorella from 2009-13 – and it’s hard to believe that if he expressed even a smidgen of interest in coming back to New York, the Rangers would open the vault for him.
Yet, it’s hard to imagine the Penguins would let him out of his contract just so that he could join a bitter division rival.
And if Sullivan decides he wants to move on, the Rangers won’t be the only ones interested. One possibility is the Boston Bruins, who finished last in the East under Joe Sacco after Jim Montgomery was fired in November. Sullivan is a Massachusetts native, played at Boston University and the Bruins were his first NHL coaching stop – and his son-in-law, defenseman Charlie McAvoy, plays for the Bruins.
Sullivan was Drury’s top choice before he hired Gallant in 2021, and he’d be the top choice again. If he wants the job, it’s his.
John Tortorella
Current position: Unemployed (fired by the Philadelphia Flyers on March 28)
If Sullivan stays put or goes elsewhere, the Rangers could decide that bringing Tortorella, a Dolan favorite, back might be exactly what his team needs. Whether Drury agrees with him is another question – Tortorella was the one who had to tell the current GM that his playing career was basically over after the 2010-11 season.
The second-winningest U.S.-born coach in NHL history (behind Laviolette) had a four-game season-ending stint behind the bench with the Rangers in 1999-2000 before going to Tampa Bay for the 2000-01 season and leading the Lightning to their first Stanley Cup title in 2004. He returned to the Rangers late in the 2008-09 season and enjoyed some success, leading the Blueshirts to the Presidents’ Trophy in 2011-12.
He lasted one more season on Broadway and has coached the Vancouver Canucks (one season), Columbus Blue Jackets (six seasons) and the Flyers (two-plus seasons), though never enjoying the success he had in New York.
Tortorella gets his teams to play hard, regardless of talent level. That could be a major selling point for a team whose compete level was often missing this season.
Joel Quenneville
Current position: Unemployed (has not coached since 2021)
Quenneville’s resume includes three Stanley Cup championships with the Chicago Blackhawks (2010, 2013 and 2015). But it also includes revelations about his role in the Kyle Beach sexual assault case with the Hawks that emerged in 2020. However, the NHL cleared him to coach again — though no team has taken a chance on him since.
It’s hard to imagine Quenneville wanting to work for a rebuilding franchise. But the Rangers, a mostly veteran team with a star goaltender and some talent in key spots, might be an appealing re-entry point for Quenneville – if he wants to coach again.
Whether the recent news that Rangers forward Artemi Panarin and MSG Sports settled a sexual assault allegation last summer has any effect on hiring Quenneville is unknown. But it raises the question of whether the Rangers would hire a coach who tried to sweep a sexual assault under the rug – and would Quenneville want to come to a team with a sexual assault settlement that’s just been revealed?
Rick Tocchet
Current position: Coach of Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks were among the biggest disappointments in the NHL this season, but that hasn’t hurt Tocchet’s stature one year after he won the Jack Adams Award as the League’s top coach. He’s coaching Team Canada at the upcoming World Championships, which indicates the regard he’s held around the hockey world.
Although Tocchet’s contract is expiring, the Canucks have a club option to extend him for 2025-26. What the option really does is give the team some runway to work out an extension. He said Friday he plans to “go through the process,” though Tocchet didn’t say exactly what that meant.
If Tocchet opts not to sign a new deal with Vancouver and the Canucks are uncomfortable at the though of having a lame duck coach who’s planning to leave, he figures to have plenty of potential suitors. One could be the Flyers, the team he played for during most of his career.
Drury interviewed Tocchet four years ago before hiring Gallant, so there’s past interest. J.T. Miller, who came to the Rangers from the Canucks in a midseason trade, reportedly is a fan. If the Canucks can’t get Tocchet’s name on an extension and the job is still open, expect Drury to at least make an inquiry.
David Carle
Current position: Coach at the University of Denver
At age 35, Carle figures to get a lot of interest from NHL teams after leading Denver to two NCAA championships in his seven seasons with the Pioneers as well as piloting the United States to back-to-back gold medals at the World Junior Championship in 2024 and 2025 – both rosters included Rangers prospects Gabe Perreault and Drew Fortescue.
One thing that could work against Carle is the fate of the only other coach the Rangers have hired straight from college during Dolan’s 26 years of running Madison Square Garden. David Quinn, who came to the Rangers from Boston University, got the ax in May 2021 after Dolan decided he was done with John Davidson, Jeff Gorton and the rebuild. They hired Gallant soon afterward.
Would Dolan and Drury turn to another coach with no NHL experience (not even as a player; a heart problem ended his career before he got to the NHL)? Not impossible, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Dan Muse/Michael Peca
Current positions: Assistant coaches with the Rangers
Drury axed associate head coach Phil Housley along with Laviolette. But he kept Muse and Peca, the other two assistants Laviolette brought in two years ago. Reportedly each will have an opportunity to interview for the vacant job in New York.
Muse was Perreault’s coach at the U.S. National Team Development Program and is said to be popular with a number of Rangers players. Peca played 14 seasons in the NHL and won the Frank Selke Trophy in 1996-97 with the Buffalo Sabres and 2001-02 with the New York Islanders – where Laviolette was his coach. His two seasons under Laviolette were his first behind an NHL bench.
Getting the No. 1 job in one of the biggest markets in the NHL might be more than either Muse or Peca is ready for. Both may well receive interviews, but at this point, they’re more likely to be seen as fitting a support role.
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