DOLAN'S BLUEPRINT
New Rangers coach must be able to work with young players Owner: Captaincy had negative effect on Mcdonagh
THE Rangers are clear about the qualities they are seeking in a head coach to lead them through their rebuild. “We’re looking for someone who can develop players and develop a team,” Garden executive chairman Jim Dolan told The Post during a conversation at his MSG office on Wednesday. “We want someone who is going to be able to work with young players — all of our players, really — so that they and we improve from one stage of the season to the next and we’re better at the end of the year than at the beginning.
“We need a coach who is going to be able to coordinate with the assistants and the training staff in putting a program in place. He’s going to have to be able to delegate authority in identifying deficiencies and fixing them. Scolding a player doesn’t fix the problem. He can’t try to do everything by himself. The job is just too big.”
Dolan said that the team is openminded to hiring someone without NHL coaching experience, though he believes the job would be more challenging for an individual who hasn’t served as even an NHL team’s assistant.
“I think having some experience on NHL ice is valuable, but that will be up to Jeff,” Dolan said, referring to general manager Jeff Gorton. “We want to get the best guy. I don’t care where he comes from. We’ve got a list of candidates, but it’s not closed.”
The next coach will be the club’s fourth since 2005-06 following Tom Renney, John Tortorella and Alain Vigneault, who was dismissed after five years on the job. Vigneault took the club to the 2014 Cup final and the 2015 conference final after winning the Presidents’ Trophy in 2014-15, but the Rangers had regressed since then, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010 in conjunction with the predeadline decision to break up the team and embark on a fresh start.
“I think Alain was a great coach, but a great coach for a developed team,” Dolan said. “Even though he probably didn’t mean to, he sort of affirmed that himself when he talked after the last game about how he didn’t have the players this year.
“He was probably correct, but the next coach is going to have to be able to take the players we have, the young guys we have, and get them to the next level. I liked what I saw in the young guys and so did the staff. “The guy we hire has to be a developmental coach, I can’t stress that enough.” Dolan has no second thoughts about the decision to start anew. Nor does he have regrets about the way the decisio
n was communicated to the team and the fans on Feb. 9, well before the Feb. 26 deadline, and when the Blueshirts were still on the fringes of the playoff race.
“None at all,” Dolan said. “It was the right time for us and we did it the right way. We were straightforward with it. We didn’t want to be in a situation where we had our own people guessing about it.
“Our intention isn’t to be at the bottom but we’re going to do this the right way. I think we have good young talent here, we’ve got a lot of draft picks coming up and maybe we’ll get lucky and win the lottery, but we’re obviously not counting on that.
“We have the plan. Now we have to carry it out. We have to be smart.”
The Rangers are not only looking for a coach, they are looking for a captain in the wake of the trade that sent Ryan McDonagh (and J.T. Miller) to the Lightning. The next captain may or may not be on the roster.
“We need strong leadership in the locker room. I don’t think we had great leadership last year,” Dolan said. “I think maybe we added a burden to Ryan when we made him captain that affected him on and off the ice and kind of changed his own perception of himself. But he was a really good player for us for a long time.
“And I know we need that one great player who can make a difference. We’ve identified some who might become available, and if they do, we want to be in position where we’re able to get them. We’re building a lot of data and analytics into our decision-making. And it’s important for the new coach to embrace that.
“We’re committed to winning the Stanley Cup. I can’t give a timetable, but I also think we can compete for a playoff spot next year and sneak into seventh or eighth place,” he said. “We’re rebuilding but it doesn’t have to take forever.”