KING OF QUINN
NEW COACH WILL PUT BLUESHIRTS TO WORK
After David Quinn’s name and face had been splayed all over Madison Square Garden’s famous marquee on Seventh Avenue, the newly named coach of the Rangers walked inside to a sea of cameras and reporters — and it quickly became apparent he was no longer the coach of Boston University.
“A little different than a BU press conference, I’ll tell you that,” Quinn said to open his first public remarks as headman of the Broadway Blueshirts.
It will not be long before Quinn truly understands the pressures that come with being named the 35th coach in franchise history, taking over for the fired Alain Vigneault. But there was an immediate understanding that Quinn is on the same page with general manager Jeff Gorton and assistant GM Chris Drury, both of whom he has known for a long time.
“I [will be] 52 years old [when the season starts], and at this point in my life, to be able to be the head coach of the New York Rangers was an opportunity I could not pass up,” Quinn said. “Everything just aligned, from where they’re at as an organization, to my relationship with Jeff and Chris, the support we get from [team president] Glen [Sather] and [assistant GM] Jim Schoenfeld. This is really the only situation I would have left Boston University for.”
As it turns out, the Rangers felt Quinn was exactly the right man for the job at exactly the right time, when they are trying to focus their rebuilding process through the development of young players. That happens to be of Quinn’s speciali- ties through his eclectic coaching experience that includes head coaching or assistant stints at the college, minor league and NHL levels, leading to five seasons as the BU head coach.
“We couldn’t be happier with our selection,” Gorton said. “It’s obviously an important day when we’re naming a head coach, but we’re also naming a head coach at a time when we’re rebuilding our team. As pretty well documented, we’re looking for somebody with fresh ideas and a fresh approach. As we went through the process, we met with a number of people, and talked to a lot of good hockey people, and it just kept coming back to David as the guy we wanted and can see as we move forward with the Rangers and do what we have to do.”
There are some obvious contrasts between how Quinn de- scribed his coaching style and that of Vigneault. Most notably, Quinn is “hands-on,” whereas Vigneault gave his players the space to police themselves through veteran leadership.
“I’d like to think I’m fair and demanding,” Quinn said. “There’s no gray area with me with players. They want to get better, they want to be held accountable, but the message has to be that this is in your best interest. This isn’t about me being a big, tough coach. It’s about me letting them know that everything we’re doing is to make them better players. And when a player realizes that, when they realize how much you care about them, there’s a trust factor that creeps in and I think that’s where success happens.”
Quinn also comes with a defensive mindset, having been a lefty defenseman himself as a firstround pick (No. 13 overall) of the North Stars in 1984, eventually becoming the assistant coach in charge of defense at BU under the legendary Jack Parker. From there, Quinn transitioned into the pros with three years as the head coach for AHL Lake Erie and one year as an assistant on Joe Sacco’s staff with the Avalanche before returning to take over for Parker at BU in 2013.
All of that experience has made him believe he is ready for this opportunity, where development might be the focus, but there are still veterans on the team that must be coached.
“It’s all about relationships, and you don’t have the same relationship with a 20-year-old that you do with a 35-year-old,” Quinn said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to coach at the NHL level where I dealt with guys that were older with big contracts. To me, it’s all about having people skills and understanding what motivates somebody.”
Quinn has also embraced newage analytics, saying: “All information is helpful. How much you use and verbalize to your team depends on how comfortable you are with that information.”
It is a big change for the Rangers to go from Vigneault to Quinn, and a big change for Quinn to go from BU to the Rangers. Now all that’s left is to see how it all works out.