{"id":566180,"date":"2026-05-03T23:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T23:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/566180\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T23:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T23:21:12","slug":"rangers-fire-multiple-ahl-coaches-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/566180\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers Fire Multiple AHL Coaches \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After the AHL\u2019s Hartford Wolf Pack finished last in the league this season, its parent club is making sweeping changes. The Rangers announced Sunday that head coach Grant Potulny, as well as assistants <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/marapa01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Paul Mara<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/t\/tardija01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jamie Tardif<\/a>, have been relieved of their duties.<\/p>\n<p>Potulny\u2019s run in charge of the Rangers\u2019 next wave of prospects ends after just two years. A longtime assistant coach at the University of Minnesota before taking over Northern Michigan\u2019s program, Hartford was Potulny\u2019s first professional coaching job. The former Senators draft pick (fifth round, 2000) amassed a 56-71-17 record as Hartford missed out on the AHL\u2019s 23-team playoffs on both occasions. Hartford\u2019s 26 wins in 72 games this season gave them the league\u2019s worst record.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not as if Hartford\u2019s roster is overflowing with high-end prospects, but their lack of scoring depth and defensive competency overall was striking. Only two players hit the 30-point mark: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/f\/fixwotr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Trey Fix-Wolansky<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/brissbr01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brendan Brisson<\/a>. Not a single player with at least 25 games played for them logged a plus rating.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re now looking at a full minor-league coaching overhaul with both of Potulny\u2019s assistants following him out the door. Mara, who played 156 games for the Rangers from 2007-09 as part of a 12-year NHL career, first joined the Blueshirts in a coaching capacity in 2023 on their development staff before being reassigned to the AHL staff later that year. All of his previous coaching experience had come in women\u2019s hockey, winning a gold medal as an assistant on Team USA\u2019s staff in 2018 while winning two NWHL\/PHF titles with the Boston Pride in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Tardif is the longest-tenured name among the group. The 41-year-old just wrapped up his fourth and final season as an assistant in Hartford. He\u2019s yet to hold a head coaching gig at any level and was previously an assistant coach with the OHL\u2019s Soo Greyhounds from 2018-22, as well as a player\/coach with the ECHL\u2019s Quad City Mallards in 2017-18.<\/p>\n<p>Only former Coyotes draft pick Brendan Burke, son of longtime NHL netminder\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/b\/burkese01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sean Burke<\/a>, remains among Hartford\u2019s core coaching staff as their goalie coach. That makes sense given the success of Rangers third-stringer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/g\/garandy01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-03_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dylan Garand<\/a>\u00a0there this season. Given Hartford\u2019s struggles in front of him, Garand\u2019s 16-15-2 record and .896 SV% in 36 outings stand out in a positive light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the AHL\u2019s Hartford Wolf Pack finished last in the league this season, its parent club is making&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[63599,5,63600,35,63601],"class_list":{"0":"post-566180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-hockey","7":"tag-grant-potulny","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jamie-tardif","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-paul-mara"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116513215859881273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}