New York Rangers fire coach Dave Quinn, 3 assistants
NEW YORK (AP) » The New York Rangers’ managerial shakeup is complete.
New general manager Chris Drury fired coach David Quinn and three assistant coaches Wednesday after they missed the playoffs with one of the NHL’s up-and-coming teams. The move is the first major one from Drury, who took over last week after the team fired popular president John Davidson and general manager Jeff Gorton to start the front-office overhaul.
In a brief statement issued by the team, Drury thanked Quinn and the others and said the Rangers will begin a search for a new head coach immediately.
In three years, Quinn posted 96-87-25 record in rebuilding the Rangers with a much younger team that included No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafreniere this past season. The roster also includes talented forwards Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Pavel Buchnevich, Kaapo
Kakko and standout defenseman Adam Fox.
Assistant coaches Jacques Martin, David Oliver, Greg Brown were also fired. Goaltending coach Benoit Allaire was retained.
Long-time NBC Sports NHL analyst Pierre McGuire said he felt Quinn related well with his players and ran a good bench — and it wasnt enough.
“Somebody, whether it was Chris Drury or the owners or someone in upper management, thought they weren’t the staff that would take the team to the next level,” McGuire said.
Quinn, who was hired by the Rangers after a stint at Boston University, is the fourth NHL coach fired this season, joining Claude Julien of Montreal, Ralph Krueger of Buffalo and Geoff Ward of Calgary. Contracts were also not renewed for John Tortorella of Columbus and Rick Tocchet of Arizona.
The Rangers made the expanded playoffs in the 201920 season but were swept in the play-in round by the Carolina Hurricanes. New York posted a 27-23-6 record in this shortened 56-game season and finished in fifth place in the tough East Division.
The past week has been wild for the Rangers.
The unexpected firings of Davidson and Gorton came a day after the team called for the removal of NHL head of player safety George Parros, who fined but did not suspend the Capitals’ Tom Wilson for a scrum that injured Panarin. The league fined the Rangers a whopping $250,000.
The firings of Davidson and Gorton were described as unrelated to the Wilson saga.
McGuire said one of the final straws for Quinn may have happened at the end of the season, when New York was still contending for a playoff spot.