Mike Sullivan expected to be named Rangers head coach

Mike Sullivan expected to be named Rangers head coach

Welcome to New York’s number two sports show. The New York Rangers are expected to name Mike Sullivan the 38th head coach in franchise history and Emily Kaplan is reporting that this is expected to be one of the richest coaching contracts in NHL history. So, a lot to discuss here as well that John Todorella is a strong candidate to rejoin the organization. In what role, I’m not sure. It’s a possibility that’s behind the bench as an associate coach. Um but maybe it’s, you know, something of an advisory role in the front office. Not too sure yet, but it does seem likely that he will rejoin as well. But with Mike Sullivan, um there was always a lot of connections between Chris Jury and Sullivan, both Boston University alums. And as soon as Sullivan uh was let go by the Pittsburgh Penguins, you know, you connect the dots and it kind of made sense that this is what what was going to happen. Um, and it’s not as recorded, it’s not official, but it seems like it’s certainly headed in that direction. I would have preferred to at the very least waited and kind of see what’s out there, right? Like for example, you know, could John Cooper be let go by the Tampa Bay Lightning? It’s possible. I mean, he’s been there for a while. um they just had a disappointing first round exit to the Florida Panthers. And look, like A, Cooper may stay in Tampa. B, Cooper may have preferences elsewhere, right? But just to kind of, you know, have as many options as possible. Also understanding that Sullivan was really highly sought after. He he was uh and I think a lot of teams were really interested in him. So, I understand it. Again, not surprised at all. But I I would have a preferred to have just maybe given it a little bit more time and b if you could have somehow gotten your hands on a young upandcoming head coach, David Carl being one of the guys. But like I said in the episode where Lavlet was fired um as far as uh you know Jay Leech, Jeff Halpern, and there’s a few others that look there’s a risk to that, right? I mean, even like a Dan Muse or Michael Pekka, like, and again, like, would I want someone from the previous staff head coaching this team? Probably not. Although, look, there’s a decent chance that Muse andor Pekka will stay on the coaching staff for maybe transition to maybe a Hartford Wolfback head coaching role. Again, probably unlikely on that side, but I think Muse has a chance of staying on the coaching staff. Um, and Pekka, I think, is seen as kind of someone that in the long run could become an NHL head coach, but um, you have a Team USA feel here, uh, with Drury, Sullivan, Tortoella, they were all part of the most recent Team USA squad for Four Nations where Drury was the assistant general manager, Sullivan the head coach, and Torella the assistant head coach. The interesting thing from a Ranger perspective, just to kind of get into Sullivan and his history, Mike Sullivan, first off, he was drafted by the Rangers as a player, uh he he elected to stay with Boston University, and he never played uh any NHL games with the Rangers, but he was drafted by them. Uh it’s somewhat reminiscent of Peter Lavlet, who actually um played with the R in his only NHL action, I believe. It wasn’t much, but he actually played with the Rangers in the late 80s. Um, and with Sullivan, he was drafted by the Rangers in 1987, 57 years old, I should add. So, Sullivan certainly older in age, but not by a crazy amount. In fact, he’s actually younger than when Lavia, you know, younger than Lavlet, and he was slightly younger than uh draw Glant when he was hired by Chris Drury. So, it’s not as if it’s kind of all within the same range. Um, but with Sullivan, it’s interesting that he was an assistant coach for the Rangers on John Tortoella’s staff in the early 2010s um from the 0910 season till the uh 1213 season. And um you know, so there is a familiar sense as far as any range of players that were on that team that are on the team now. only a couple and that’s even as of right now because that you know I’m talking about Chris Crryder. Um and I don’t think necessarily that these moves indicate anything as far as like who is staying who is going. I think that’s mostly independent. I’m sure Mike Sullivan and potentially Tortoella will be involved in some of those conversations, but I think that’s more of a Chris Drury thing and um and I still don’t expect Chris Crowder to be back this coming season. But as of now, you had Crowder that was on that team and also JT Miller as a very I mean both as very young players, but um you know, as far as Terrell is concerned like he coached Jetti Panera with the Columbus Blue Jackets. So, there’s some other connections as well, but what I’m trying to say is it’s a basically a totally new team from the one that they had with the Rangers back then. Kind of also kind of interesting is that David Quinn um he was on Mike Sullivan’s staff with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but it but Emily Kaplan is reporting that David Quinn is not expected to join this um coaching staff. And that one makes more sense. I mean, David Quinn was pretty damn recent. I mean, you have you still have a decent amount of the players, not not that many, you know, but um Quinn, a it was more recent and b like it becomes a bit of a joke if your whole coaching staff is basically two assistant coaches who were former head coaches and we don’t even know for certain that Tortoella will be behind the bench anyway. So, just wanted to clarify things on David on the David Quinn front. But as far as Mike Sullivan ha has a playing career that, you know, it is more than serviceable. He plays 709 NHL games with the San Jose Sharks, the Calgary Flames, the Boston Bruins, and the Phoenix Coyotes. So, mostly a guy in the Western Conference. I mean, as a Ranger fan, there isn’t a whole lot of exposure there. Uh, gets a little bit of playoff action as a player. um mostly with the Calgary Flames, but a little bit with the Bruins and then the Coyotes, but more of a depth center, right? More of a bottom six uh center in the NHL, but really makes a name for himself as a coach more so than anything. But it starts out with him um as a head coach of the Boston Bruins um you know, at a very young age. That’s the thing with a lot of these guys. guys. I mean, even Lavlet very young to start. We’re talking about over 20 years ago, the 0304 season for Sullivan, who’s from Boston. So, I’m sure that meant a lot to him. In the first year, he actually does reach the playoffs um in the year right before the lockout and they lose a tough series in seven to Montreal and then a bit of a disaster. Um actually, Brian Leech was on this Boston Bruins team 0506 first year out of the lockout. they were not good and and he is subsequently fired from there. He basically ends up on John Torella’s staffs with the Tampa Bay Lightning, then with the New York Rangers, and then the Vancouver Conucks. So, that’s kind of what it was. So, even though he he does get that head coaching role early on, he then kind of falls back into an assistant role again uh under John Torella for the most part. and you know well respected Sullivan that is um and really did a nice job with the Rangers and you know one could argue that it was a mistake that he was let go uh obviously the Rangers moving on to Ela Vigno and there was some early success there of course reaching the cup final winning a president’s trophy right but Sullivan eventually um you know after you know he’s let go by the Canucks he joins the Blackhawks as a player development coach briefly and then before the 16 season he’s named head coach of the AHL affiliate of the Penguins, the Wilsbury Scranton Penguins. Um, and then within a few months, Mike Johnston, who was the head coach of the Penguins at the time, is fired and Sullivan takes over and the rest is kind of history. He wins two Stanley Cups. He takes over, you know, about mid year, a little before that, and wins the cup, uh, beating the Sharks in the in the final. and then the next season they beat the Predators in the final. So, um, look, it’s a combination of a lot of things working, but on the one hand, obviously, he has Crosby, Malcolin, Latang, so on and so forth. He’s got a great team that had won years before, but but the Penguins kind of felt a little bit of hard time. Still a playoff team, but you know, um, you know, the magic with Dan Balma kind of ran out and obviously with Mike Johnson, it wasn’t great. There might have been another coach in the mix there as well, but Sullivan really um was exactly what they needed. Then you have a bunch of playoff appearances, but not really ones in which they go far. And the one after the two cups was losing the seven round to Washington. And then Washington subsequently won the cup that year. So that was tough. They kind of had Washington’s number in that Crosetkin matchup for a while there. Um and then it’s lost, you know, in a tough series in the second round. From there, Pittsburgh was a pretty good team, honestly. Like, these weren’t really necessarily fringe teams that made the playoffs. These were good teams that really had very quick early playoff exits um all the way around. uh to the point where actually Sullivan’s last postseason appearance was against the Rangers in 2022 where the Rangers win in seven a very memorable series where Pittsburgh arguably was the better team but the Rangers come out on top. Ben Sullivan it kind of progressively gets worse. It’s three straight playoff misses with Pittsburgh. Um and you know in 23 and in 24 they came close to making it like they were in the mix towards the end but fell short and then this past season it just wasn’t there. Um and so that move is made by Pittsburgh to let Mike Sullivan go and here we are. And I think I believe it was I want to say it was when Gerard Galant was hired, but it could have been Lavlet that there was that they were waiting to see what the Rangers were as far as what Sullivan’s status was going to be. Uh and and he stayed with Pittsburgh and so they hired I believe it was it could have been Labulette, but we know that there’s been a connection uh between the Rangers and specifically Jury with Mike Sullivan. And I should also mention that Chris Chris Jury was on that team uh you know with Mike Sullivan and John to Tortoella as head coach. So you know there’s a history there from a coach player standpoint not for very long because you know I believe it was basically for two seasons at most uh because you know 0910 for sure but then the 1011 season jury was hurt for almost all of it. Um but still that is something that I think probably plays a role here as well. still a lot of question marks and again this isn’t something that’s even official at this point but it is um interesting you know with the John Tortoella factor like you don’t normally see with that same organization a head coach become assistant coach and that’s the thing it might not actually be that all Emily clap Kaplan says there’s a strong possibility that he rejoins the organization so kind of remains to be seen what Toro’s role is but I do believe that poor and I definitely uh would be surprised if that isn’t the case. I think that he will be with the Rangers in some capacity. You know what, this coaching staff is going to demand a Lochner players. Not to say that the previous regimes didn’t, but the one good thing with Sullivan is you know, and while he may not be as combative necessarily as Totoella, I mean I mean behind the scenes he might be, but you know that he is going to demand a lot out of this this team. And I think it might look a lot different than the one that we see now. But um look, would I be shocked if this ends up being a situation where you have that year one sit thing where the team really is much better than the year before and then year two it kind of dips? Possibly. But then that what that would tell me is that basically it’s a lot of the same players. The biggest thing here is the roster. I think the head coach is of course important. Sullivan’s a big name. Um, but I also think that what Chris Jury does with this team is going to go a lot longer than what Mike Sullivan does or does not do. And that for me is the most intriguing part of the offseason. But it’s it’s getting going early. Uh, and we knew when Lavent was fired that this was going to happen, but maybe a little bit sooner than we all thought. But once Sullivan again was let go by Pittsburgh, this became somewhat inevitable. So again, I have my questions with this move. I’m not the biggest Mike Sullivan fan, but I do respect the resume and what he’s done and I I would expect uh things at least in year one to go a lot better than they did this past season with Peter Lavlet. Um you know, still some more things to find out as far as the rest of the coaching staff is concerned. Um but it is expected that the new head coach of the New York Rangers will be Mike Sullivan.

He led the Pittsburgh Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 & 2017. He was on the NYR coaching staff from 2009-13 under John Tortorella, who also might re-join the organization.

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